Bhopal, March 12 Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha in the Assembly on Thursday as the Congress candidate. The party had not formally announced his name before he filed the papers.
The Congress will finalise its second candidate later.
The BJP has already announced the name of former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia who joined the party on Wednesday. Scindia was expected to arrive in Bhopal at 3 p.m. but got delayed on Thursday. He is expected to file his papers on Friday morning.
The BJP has also nominated Sumer Singh Solanki, an educationist from Badnagar in Malwa region, as its second candidate. While Scindia will replace Prabhat Jha in the Upper House, Solanki, a tribal, will replace former Union minister Satyanarayan Jatiya, another tribal.
About Scindia's candidature, Digvijaya said this contest has turned into a "battle of ideologies - Nehru-Gandhi and Godse."
"Unfortunately Jyotiraditya Scindia has chosen that of Godse. We are sad about this," Digvijaya said.
He claimed hundreds were transferred at the instance of Scindia.
"Collector-SP was replaced in my home district. Even the election tickets were decided according to his advice. There was no problem in making him PCC chief or sending him to Rajya Sabha. Scindia's name was also proposed to be the Deputy CM. But, he wanted to make Tulsi Silavat the Deputy CM," he said.
Digvijaya thanked Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Chief Minister Kamal Nath as well as all members of the Working Committee after filing his nominations papers.
Digvijaya said 19 Congress MLAs have been "imprisoned" in Bengaluru. He said it was strange that the resignations of Congress MLAs were brought by BJP leader Bhupendra Singh and he expected the Speaker of the Assembly to accept them as well.
"BJP calls it Congress' internal matter, so why have they held them hostage in Bengaluru? Kamal Nath has asked for floor test and we are ready," he said.
( With inputs from IANS )