Bhopal: BJP’s Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Thakur on Tuesday attacked her opponent Digvijaya Singh of the Congress and said that she had jumped into the poll fray to provide a fitting response to those who had equated “bhagwa” (saffron) with terrorism.
“I am here to fight those who linked Hindus and Bhagwa with terrorism,” she said.
Addressing a rally before submitting her nomination papers, Thakur claimed that “sanyasis” (female saints) were forced to take up power when atrocities and excesses started to increase. Citing her example, Thakur also claimed that women under the earlier Congress government at the Centre were subjected to all kinds of atrocities and torture.
Thakur cited the example of former Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi, who was forced to leave the party after allegedly being harassed by workers. Chaturvedi later joined the Shiv Sena.
The Narendra Modi-led government, meanwhile, has ensured respect for women, she claimed. Thakur added that the state government, under former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had undertaken several types of welfare schemes for women, which have now been halted by the Congress government.
Responding to Singh’s vision document for Bhopal’s development, Thakur said she would seek public advice before chalking out such a plan.
After a public meeting, Thakur led hundreds of party workers and supporters clad in saffron towards the collectorate and completed the nomination process amid chanting of mantras.
During the procession, a man suspected to be a worker of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) showed black flags to Thakur. He was thrashed by BJP workers and rescued by the police. Thakur, who had submitted her nomination papers on Monday as per a “shubh muhurt” (an auspicious occasion), completed the formalities on Tuesday.
Outgoing Bhopal MP Alok Sanjar also filed his nomination as a ‘dummy’ candidate from the seat, a day after police registered an FIR against Thakur over remarks on the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, had boasted about her role in the demolition of the 16th-century structure, inviting a show-cause notice from the Election Commission (EC), which also directed the police Monday to file an FIR against her.
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