I go to only those Muslims who say Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata ki Jai,” said Malini Gaur, BJP candidate from Indore-4, and widow of former Madhya Pradesh Education Minister Laxman Singh Gaur. She was responding to a query on Thursday on why she was yet to visit Bombay Bazaar, a minority-dominated area in her constituency.

Malini Gaur was in the spotlight recently, after a photograph of her alongside Sadhvi Pragya Singh — accused in the Malegaon blast case — came to light. Also in the photograph were BJP president Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The photograph was taken at a condolence meeting after her husband’s death last February.

While the photograph continues to turn up in political discussions in Delhi, Malini Gaur skips any mention of Pragya Singh in her campaign. She focuses on 67 measures that her husband had taken as Education Minister, including the “guru paada puja” (a ritual touching of teachers’ feet) on Teachers’ Day. “Sadhvi Pragya Singh is a tapasvi, she is a saint. That is why she is not an issue for us. It is an issue for the Congress government in Maharashtra,” she says .

The BJP in Madhya Pradesh plays down “terror”, but Congress leaders — who come down from Delhi — are breathing fire in Indore. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, senior leaders including former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and AICC minority cell chairman Imran-ur-Kidwai addressed three separate press conferences here on the “politicisation of terror”. While Kidwai sought to draw a parallel between “Al Qaeda terror” and “saffron terror”, Singh blamed the Sangh Parivar for other terror blasts.

... contd.