Ahead of Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, Digvijaya Singh aims to unite the Congress

Madhya Pradesh’s most accomplished political yatri, former CM and AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh — who recently completed a gruelling 3300kms Narmada Parikrama — has embarked on yet another yatra on Thursday.

Called the "Ekta Yatra", Digvijaya Singh’s latest initiative aims at resolving the differences between Congress leaders right down to the village level before the upcoming assembly elections.

On Thursday, the Ekta Yatra was flagged off after Digvijaya Singh, along with nearly a dozen other members of a body called the "coordination committee" set up by PCC president Kamal Nath with Digvijaya Singh as its head, went for a darshan at the Ram Raja Temple in Orchha, Madhya Pradesh. The committee has representation from all factions of the Congress.

The members of the committee travel in a bus and meet party workers and leaders at pre-selected sites, and also hold public meetings. The coordination committee has some rules too. Those aspiring for tickets are not entertained and slogans hailing a particular Congress leader are not allowed.

In a bid to discourage factionalism, only slogans hailing the Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party are allowed during the course of the yatra. The enduring theme at all pit stops is to forget all differences till the culmination of the 2018 assembly polls and to work jointly against the BJP.

On Thursday, the yatra chugged out of Orchha and went to Tikamgarh where a meeting of Congress leaders was held. The yatra then proceeded to Chhatarpur where it would halt for the night. It would then cover other districts of Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand. Digvijaya Singh tweeted on Thursday saying that if all Congressmen unite, the BJP will not stand a chance in MP.

How successful will the yatra be in its objectives? Well, if there is anyone who has the ability to convince political rivals within and outside the party, it is Digvijaya Singh.

He is the longest-serving Congress CM in the state who managed to keep his government afloat in tumultuous times marked by changes in Congress Presidents, the exiting of his one-time mentor Arjun Singh from the Congress and challenges from the BJP.

A minor miracle in Congress politics was achieved on Thursday itself when known Digvijaya Singh baiter, former MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi was present with the former at Orchha. Both spoke of the need for the party men to be united and to single-handedly focus on defeating the well-entrenched BJP. Are these mere photo ops or something deeper is in the offing, will be known in the months to come.

Interestingly, certain overtures in keeping with the theme of the yatra were made in the days preceding it. Digvijaya Singh called on Jyotiraditya Scindia at his residence in Delhi. Earlier, Singh’s son, Raghogarh MLA Jai Vardhan Singh invited Scindia for dinner at the Raghogarh fort. Scindia accepted the invitation and said that he was visiting the fort after 15 years.

Digvijaya Singh has been constantly reaching out to Scindia after the latter lost out to Kamal Nath in the race for PCC President, in a sequence of events which Congress insiders suggest was engineered by Digvijaya Singh.

If there is one thing that rattles the BJP, it is unity in various Congress factions. It is something Congress leaders are aware of and are working towards but the nature of politics is such that keeping personal ambitions in check is not easy. The real challenge will emerge once tickets are announced and the BJP as per its plan, will try and capitalise on these differences.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

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