UP is battlefield for some Madhya Pradesh leaders too

BHOPAL: The forthcoming assembly election in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh is prestigious for some prominent leaders from Madhya Pradesh.

Both Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Uma Bharti are leaving no stone unturned to ensure their respective party's success in the election.

Digvijay, buoyed by the Congress's performance in UP in the last Lok Sabha elecion, has shifted the base temporarily to Lucknow. He has rented a flat there, and even taken his cook along, sources close to the Congress leader said.

Besides actual campaigning, Digvijay is busy fine-tuning the party machinery, and strategising. He ensures that he is in Lucknow every evening for meetings with party leaders.

Madhya Pradesh Congress MP from Ujjain, Premchand Guddu, is taking care of party's campaign in Merrut region of Uttar Pradesh. Like Singh, he has rented a house there.

But Uma Bharti has a higher profile: not only she is BJP's crowd-puller campaigner in UP, but is being touted as a candidate for Chief Minister's post. She is contesting election from the crucial Charkhari seat in Bundelkhand region of the northern state.

Bharti, once a prominent face of Ram Janmabhoomi movement, is fully aware that success in Uttar Pradesh will catapult her to a larger role within BJP and in the national politics.

Another prominent politician from Madhya Pradesh, BJP's National General Secretary Narendra Singh Tomar, who is party's in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, too is active in preparations for the polls. He too is camping in UP.