Digvijaya Singh ropes in 3,000 saints for campaigning

New Delhi, May 01: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has devised a strategy to counter Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Pragya Thakur from Bhopal.

The BJP is presenting Thakur, who is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon terrorist bombings, not only in Bhopal but every seat of Madhya Pradesh as a symbol of Hindutva and nationalism.

Thakur has been alleging that she was tortured during detention because of the Congress-led government wanted to prove its 'Hindu Terror' theory.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had defended her candidature, and said it was a symbolic answer to all those who falsely labelled the rich Hindu civilisation as "terrorist" and asserted that "this symbol will prove costly for the Congress".

Before Thakur was made the BJP candidate, Digvijaya Singh's campaign was centred on questioning development of Bhopal, which has been sending BJP candidates to the Lok Sabha from last three decades.

Singh, who is fighting the election that will decide his political future, soon realised that the development centric campaigning would not yield much results against BJP's aggressive Hindutva campaign.

Sources tell One India that Singh's political campaign managers advised him that he should send a message in Bhopal that he is not averse to Hinduism.

It's notable that Singh still receives flak on the social media for terming Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden as "Osama Ji" and 26/11 mastermind Hafeez Saeed as "Hafeez Saab."

Singh quickly changed his strategy and started visiting Hindu temples regularly.

He has told his supporters to change the general perspective that he is more close to Muslims than Hindus.

According to sources, around 3000 Hindu saints are likely to campaign for Digvijaya Singh and many of them have already started campaigning under the leadership of Namdeo Tyagi alias Computer Baba.

Self-proclaimed godman, 'Computer Baba', has been appointed as chairman of 'Ma Narmada, Ma Kshipra and Ma Mandaknini River Trust' in Madhya Pradesh by the Congress-led Kamal Nath government.

Earlier, he was given a status of "Minister of State status" in Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

Sources also say that saints have been roped in for Singh's campaigning with the help of Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati. It is notable that Singh along with his wife had taken blessings of the Shankaracharya before filing his nomination.

Apart from it, the Congress leader has been ensuring that he is often seen visiting Hindu temples.

Sources also say that Singh has also assured around 1000 priests that they would be given control of the land adjoining their temples once he is elected.