BHOPAL: Former chief minister and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh is Congress’ candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, a seat considered “one of the toughest” for the party in Madhya Pradesh.For the BJP, this has been a high-profile sure-win seat since 1989. In 2014, there was a phase of 48 hours when state BJP even put-up posters welcoming party patriarch LK Advani to contest from here instead of his Gandhinagar home turf in Gujarat.“I had suggested three constituencies to Digvijaya Singh – Bhopal, Jabalpur and Indore. But he asked me to take the decision,” chief minister Kamal Nath said on Saturday. “Digvijaya Singh has been the state’s chief minister and state Congress president for years so I had argued that his candidature from Rajgarh won’t be suitable for him. The Congress central election committee, thereafter, decided that he will contest from Bhopal,” he said.“Aap logon ko bhi accha candidate mila hai Bhopal mein (You people have also got a good candidate for Bhopal),” Kamal Nath said laughing.So far, Union minister Uma Bharti and former chief minister Kailash Joshi have been BJP MPs from Bhopal along with others like Sushil Chandra Verma who was elected four times. For the Congress, former president Shankar Dayal Sharma represented the seat for two terms in the Lok Sabha from 1971-77 and 1980-84.In the BJP’s list for ticket aspirants from here for upcoming general elections is Union minister for rural development Narendra Singh Tomar among others. If Tomar gets fielded, Bhopal could turn to be a contest of two “thakur” titans – one from Raghogarh, the other from Gwalior – both outsiders.A week ago, while speaking to reporters in Chhindwara , Kamal Nath had claimed, “Digvijaya Singh will choose the seat he wants to contest from. I have requested him that he should contest from the toughest seat. There are three or four such seats in the state which the party has not won in the past 30 to 35 years.”On Saturday, the chief minister revealed that the seats he recommended were Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur. Bhopal and Indore were last won by the Congress in 1984 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Jabalpur was won by the party in 1991 and former minister of the Digvijaya Singh government Shravan Kumar Patel represented the constituency till 1996.Two days after Kamal Nath’s statement to the media in Chhindwara, Digvijaya Singh took to twitter on Monday and accepted the offer. “Thanks to Kamal Nath ji who invited me to contest from seats where the Congress is weak in Madhya Pradesh. I am grateful to him that he thought me capable of the job,” he tweeted.In a second tweet, he said, “With the support of the people of Raghogarh, even during the 1977 Janata Party wave, I contested and won. Accepting challenges is my habit. I am ready to contest the Lok Sabha election from the seat my party president Rahul Gandhi wants me to. Narmade Harr.”And it is now decided, former chief minister of ten years Digvijaya Singh will contest from Bhopal.

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