Bhopal, April 1 (IANS): Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh who is contesting the Lok Sabha election from his home turf after three decades, kick-started his campaign with a week-long ‘padyatra’ in Rajgarh constituency on Monday.

Accompanied by staunch supporters and Congress workers from his home district Rajgarh, two-time former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh started his ‘padyatra’ from Khilchipur Assembly segment, and the yatra will cover 25 kms every day.

The grand old party has fielded Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh to take on two-time BJP MP, Rodmal Nagar.

The 77-year-old Digvijaya Singh won two Lok Sabha elections from Rajgarh (1984 and 1991), and lost one against the BJP’s Pyarelal Khandelwal in 1989.

He had also contested the last Lok Sabha polls in 2019 from Bhopal and had lost to the BJP’s Pragya Singh Thakur.

His younger brother, Laxman Singh, was elected as MP five times between 1999 and 2004, the last time being for the BJP.

The BJP bagged the Rajgarh constituency for two-consecutive terms (2014 and 2019), and therefore, the party has retained Rodmal Nagar, an RSS functionary and loyalist of ex-CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the third term.

Rodmal Nagar defeated the Congress’ Mona Sustani by a margin of over four lakh votes in 2019.

However, it’s not the first time Digvijaya Singh has chosen the ‘padyatra’ route as he walked with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the first phase of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir last year.

Before that, he along with his wife Amrita Singh had carried out a ‘Narmada Parikrama’ covering around 4000 kms ahead of the Assembly elections in 2018.

Meanwhile, the BJP took a dig at Digvijaya Singh, saying the Congress leader was attempting to save his political career.

“The people of Madhya Pradesh have decided to give all 29 Lok Sabha seats to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Therefore, no matter whether he (Digvijaya Singh) embarks on a foot march or runs a marathon, his defeat is guaranteed,” MP BJP President, VD Sharma said.