She faces charges in the Malegaon blasts case.

The contest in the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has become a battle of prestige for the BJP and the Congress. Both the Sangh Parivar and the Congress have taken special interest in the seat, which the BJP bagged following the visibility of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in 1989.

On Wednesday, the BJP’s election committee announced Malegaon blasts case accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh for Bhopal to take on Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh. It is one of the four seats in Madhya Pradesh going to the polls on May 12.

The BJP named Dr. K.P. Yadav for the Guna seat, Raj Bahadur Singh for Sagar and Ramakant Bhargav for Vidisha. The Ram Rath Yatra by the then BJP president L.K. Advani in 1990 that touched the Bhopal constituency decisively changed its political direction. Since then, the BJP has held its ground by unfurling strong Hindutva sentiments in this Lok Sabha seat that has sent 16 MPs.

Like several other parliamentary constituencies in the State, Bhopal too was held by the Congress till 1989, barring 1967-1971 when the seat was won by Jagannath Rao of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. The BJP opened its account in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. Since then, the BJP has consecutively won from there in the eight general elections.

For now, it is not easy to predict which way the wind is blowing in the constituency.

The constituency is spread over eight Assembly segments — Berasia, Bhopal Uttar, Narela, Bhopal south-west, Bhopal central, Govindpura, Huzur and Sehore.