Battle for Bhopal: Seers to hold roadshow for Digvijay Singh

Bhopal: In a bid to counter ‘religious appeal’ of Sadhvi Pragya, BJP’s nominee for Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, Namdas Tyagi aka Computer Baba is going to stage a road show of seers in Bhopal on May 8 in support of Congress candidate and former chief minister Digvijay Singh.

The computer-savvy seer, who had turned rebel after being denied ticket by the BJP in the last year’s assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, announced on Saturday that around 7,000 ‘sadhus’ hailing from 13 ‘Akharas’ in the country will join the road show.

“The seers have given their consent to participate in the campaign for Mr Singh,” Mr Tyagi said.

According to him, the saints were scheduled to hold campaign for two days from May 7 which would culminate in a road show the next day.

Interestingly, Mr Tyagi was accorded minister of state (MoS) status along with four other religious leaders by the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government triggering an uproar then.

He was expelled from Sri Panch Ani Digambar Akhara, one of the 13 Akharas of sadhus in the country, and later barred from entering Mahakumbh oranised in Prayag in Uttar Pradesh by council of 13 Akharas in January this year, for accepting government position.

The Congress veteran Mr Singh was also seen visiting temples and seers while campaigning in Bhopal constituency. His rival, Pragya, who had been banned from campaigning for 72 hours since Thursday morning for violation of model code of conduct, was also seen doing ‘bhajans’ and pujas in various temples.

Congress has already lodged a complaint with the election commission seeking action against her describing her temple runs during the ban period as a form of electioneering.

Bhopal is going to polls in the sixth phase of parliamentary elections on May 12.

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