With reports that Chief Minister Raman Singh is thinking of changing his Assembly seat, his supporters have hit upon a novel idea — a kilometre-long letter — to invite him to contest from his hometown, Kawardha, in the coming Assembly elections.

A ‘rath’, an integral part of any BJP campaign, had rolled into the streets of Kawardha constituency to collect signatures of voters on a letter that thanks Singh for his “pro-people initiatives” during his nearly five-year tenure and inviting him to contest from his home turf itself.

Such a signature campaign by Singh’s supporters comes at a time when senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi had announced that he was ready to take on the Chief Minister from any constituency in the elections.

Despite Jogi’s repeated challenge, Singh preferred to maintain that it was for the party to decide from where he should contest the polls.

“The idea is to reach out to more than a lakh people and get their signature on a kilometre-long roll,” said Kawardha Municipal Council president Santosh Gupta, who conceived the idea to send out a letter to CM.

“There were newspaper reports suggesting that Singh may contest from Rajnandgaon, Bastar or any other constituency. Singh is the pride of Kawardha and this signature campaign is aimed at communicating this to him as well as to the party,” he told The Indian Express.

“The campaign is getting an overwhelming response from the people. We are also explaining as to how the welfare measures, initiated by Singh, have benefited the masses,” he said, adding that the letter would be handed over to the Chief Minister.

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