Bhopal: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader, Digvijaya Singh, reached out to his voters with a touching message on Sunday, stating that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections would be the "last election of his life."
Reflecting on his life's journey, the 77-year-old Congress veteran shared a personal story about moving to Raghogarh after his father's death and meeting a respected local merchant, Kasturchand Kathari. Kathari's advice, summarized in 12 Hindi lines, emphasized life goals like earning, saving for jewelry and a house, and making a name for oneself.
"When I came to live in Raghogarh after my father's death with an engineering degree, the old town merchant of Raghogarh, Mr. Kasturchand Kathari, came to meet me. He said, 'Raja Saheb, the goal of every person's life is according to the alphabets of Hindi... 'K se Kamai' (Earn so much that you can feed your family by earning), 'G se gehna', (Make jewelry with the savings), 'Gh se Ghar' (If you have savings after building a house), then earn a name,'" Digvijaya Singh said in a post on X in Hindi.
Adding that the 2024 general elections are going to be the last elections of his life, Singh reflected on his 50 years in politics, leaving it to the people to judge his success.
"He said, 'you are lucky, you have no shortage of food, jewelry, or house, now just 'earn a name.' I have tried to do just this in my 50 years of political life. I cannot judge how successful I was in that myself, only common people can do it. This is the last election of my life and you will decide how successful I was in it. Thank you, Digvijaya,'" he wrote.
Digvijaya Singh, son of Balbhadra Singh, the Raja of Raghogarh (under the Gwalior State), began his political career in 1969 when he was elected as the chairman of the Raghogarh Municipal Council.
In 1977, during the post-Emergency election when the Congress was wiped out across the country, Digvijaya won from the Raghogarh Assembly constituency and won Raghogarh twice more - in 1998 and 2003.
In 1984, Digvijaya entered the Lok Sabha as an MP from Rajgarh. However, in 1989, Digvijaya lost from Rajgarh to the BJP's Pyarelal Khandelwal. In 1989, the BJP was part of the Janata Dal coalition led by VP Singh that defeated the Congress at the Centre.
With the Janata Dal coalition government soon collapsing, Digvijaya won the seat back in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections. When he returned to state politics for a 10-year stint as CM, his brother Laxman Singh won the seat the next five times for the Congress.
Digvijaya Singh currently serves as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha and is a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body.
In what he has called his "last elections," Digvijaya Singh is contesting the seat from his home turf Rajgarh constituency in the 2024 elections against two-time BJP MP Rodmal Nagar.
The veteran Congress leader, who represented Rajgarh in Parliament back in the 1980s and early 90s, is returning to his home turf after three decades. The Rajgarh constituency is all set to vote on May 7, in the third phase of the ensuing general polls.
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