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DIGVIJAYA SINGH'S 'MISSION 66' FOCUSES ON SEATS THAT HAVE LONG ELUDED THE CONGRESS IN MP

- Rahul Noronha

Madhya Pradesh's longest-serving Congress chief minister, Digvijaya Singh, has over the past few years built himself quite a parallel reputation that of a yatri (traveller). In 2018, months ahead of the state assembly election, Singh completed the arduous six-month-long Narmada parikrama, an east-to-west-to-east circumambulation of the holy river, during which he visited over 100 assembly constituencies. A few months ago, he was part of Rahul Gandhi's 4,000-plus km Bharat Jodo Yatra. Now, ahead of the 2023 election, the task handed to Singh by his old friend and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president, Kamal Nath, does not entail a linear route, though it does have a clear objective. After touring for over three months some 66 assembly seats his party has not won for multiple terms now, Singh has prepared a roadmap for a Congress win in the upcoming polls.

Though his old 10-year sanyas and present Rajya Sabha perch belie it, Singh is just the right man for this kind of complex grassroots undertaking. His local knowledge runs deep in MP-a connection cemented during his long career that started as a nagar palika president in the 1970s, to minister in the 1980s, then a PCC president, and later chief minister for two terms. Unsurprisingly then, for the latest challenge, he eased himself back into the landscape for a recce like a veteran field commander familiar with each spur that can offer him an edge.