Pragya campaign being monitored daily from Delhi

New Delhi, April 26: The campaign of Pragya Singh Thakur, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Bhopal, is being monitored on a daily basis by the top saffron leadership from Delhi, say sources.

Thakur, who has been pitched against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, has already hit national headlines not only for her candidature but also for her statements. She has alleged that about 26/11 hero Hemant Karkare had tortured her in the detention to prove her role in 2008 Malegaon terrorist bombings. Thakur has also proudly admitted that she had participated in the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

Thakur is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon terrorist bombings, and out on bail.

Since she has been fielded from Bhopal, the opposition parties and a section of media have been targeting the BJP. However, the importance of Thakur for the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) could be gauged by a fact that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had supported her candidature by saying 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".

Thakur has been alleging that she was tortured in the custody at the behest of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which wanted to prove its Hindu Terror theory.

According to the insiders, the BJP unit of Bhopal has been asked to send the daily report of not only Thakur's campaigning but also of Digvijaya Singh.

The insider gives two reasons for this development, which has happened for the first time in Bhopal Lok Sabha elections.

"Though Thakur has been contesting from Bhopal but the top saffron leadership feels that Thakur and her story can have a polarising impact not only in Madhya Pradesh but across India. Therefore, it has become a prestige issue for the BJP as well as the RSS to ensure she wins from Bhopal, where the BJP has not lost an election in the last three decades," says the insider.

The BJP is presenting Thakur as a symbol of Hindutva and nationalism and she has been directed to highlight the story of her plight during her detention.

It is a digital age where news cannot be confined to the newspaper pages and geographical boundaries, therefore her story is slowly and steadily polarising the Hindutva factor across India, claims the insider.

"The second reason for the daily reporting of Pragya's campaign is that the top saffron leadership is apprehensive about Congress leader Digvijaya Singh's cordial relations with the state BJP leaders, especially former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar," adds the insider.

It is notable that OneIndia story titled 'Saffron leadership concerned over Digvijaya's friendship with Chouhan, Tomar ' on April 16 had described how the top BJP and RSS leadership was apprehensive that Chouhan and Tomar may help Digvijaya Singh , who was forced to contest from Bhopal due to the factionalism in the Congress.

Singh was challenged by his party colleague and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath to fight from a tough seat and win to prove that he is really a tall leader.