Rajgarh (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 16 (ANI): Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and Congress’ stalwart Digvijaya Singh filed nomination papers from the Rajgarh parliamentary seat on Tuesday for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“Today, I am happy that my party has directed me to contest elections from the Rajgarh seat again. Following the same, today I have filed my nomination as a Congress candidate from the Rajgarh Lok Sabha seat,” Singh told ANI.
Notably, Rajgarh has been the home seat of Digvijaya Singh. He won in 1984 and 1991, and his brother, Laxman Singh, held from 1994 to 2004. This time he will contest against sitting BJP MP Rodmal Nagar.
Meanwhile, when asked about his efforts to get 400 people to file nominations so that polls would be held through ballot paper, the Congress leader said, “I wanted the elections to be conducted through ballot paper because I do not trust EVMs. But when I came to know that if there are more than 384 people, the Election Commission will set up a control unit and conduct the elections. So I thought again and said, we will contest the election with EVMs.”
Each EVM can have a maximum of 384 candidates, including NOTA, per constituency. A total of 16 candidates, including NOTA, can appear on one ballot unit and 24 such units can be connected simultaneously to the control unit.
Singh also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks on electoral bonds.
“Three-four things have come to light after the electoral bonds were exposed. Firstly, they (BJP) took donations from beef exporting companies. Secondly, the people who were making fake medicines were first arrested and then released after taking money and electoral bonds. Thirdly, there are about 300 such cases where companies were raided by ED and CBI and freed after taking electoral bond money. Now, what will you say about all this evidence? All these are proof that money was collected by strangulating people, and extortion has been done,” the Congress leader alleged.
In an interview with ANI, PM Modi said the electoral bonds scheme was aimed at curbing black money in elections and said the opposition wants to run away after making allegations. PM Modi said that “everyone will regret it when there is an honest reflection.”
The Supreme Court in February this year struck down the electoral bond scheme and said it was unconstitutional.
Rajgarh will go to the polls in the third phase on May 7 with eight other parliamentary seats in the state.
Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh will be conducted in four phases. The first phase of polling would be held on April 19, followed by April 26, May 7 and May 13.
Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, making it the sixth-largest state in terms of parliamentary representation. Out of these, 10 seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates, while the remaining 19 are unreserved.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the BJP secured a massive victory in Madhya Pradesh, winning 28 out of the 29 seats. The Indian National Congress (INC) managed to win only one seat. (ANI)
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed of ANI; only the image & headline may have been reworked by News Services Division of World News Network Inc Ltd and Palghar News and Pune News and World News
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