Congress fields Digvijaya from 'tough seat' Bhopal
Shifts UP unit prez Babbar to ‘safer’ Fatehpur Sikri
New Delhi: The Congress has 'fielded' its strongman Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal and changed UP unit chief Raj Babbar's seat from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri to make it "easier" for the actor-turned-politician. Singh, who wanted to contest from his home turf Rajgarh, was publicly asked by MP CM Kamal Nath to choose one of the "tough seats" where the Congress has not won in three decades. Ex-CM Singh accepted the challenge and said that he would contest from any seat as long as it was chosen by "my leader Rahul Gandhi." He is yet to respond to the announcement made by Nath.
The Congress won three seats in the recent assembly polls from Bhopal. The high-profile Bhopal Lok Sabha seat is currently held by the BJP's Alok Sanjar. Late President Shankar Dayal Sharma was the last Congress winner from the seat in the 1984 LS polls. In 2014 the BJP won 27 of the 29 seats in MP.
The Congress won the remaining two, Chhindwara and Guna, held by Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia respectively. As per the Congress list, Imran Pratapgarhiya will now be the party's candidate from Moradabad in place of Babbar.
According to sources, Raj Babbar was not keen on contesting from Moradabad where the BJP has fielded its sitting MP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar. In another change, Naseemuddin Siddiqui has been fielded from Bijnor, from where Indira Bhatti was named earlier.
