UP is battlefield for some Madhya Pradesh leaders too

The forthcoming assembly election in Uttar Pradesh is a high stake political battle for some prominent leaders from Madhya Pradesh too.

Both Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti are leaving no stone unturned to ensure their respective party's success in the election.

Digvijay, buoyed by the Congress's performance in UP in the last Lok Sabha election, has shifted the base temporarily to Lucknow. He has rented a flat there and has even taken his cook along, sources close to the Congress leader said.

Besides actual campaigning, Singh is busy fine-tuning the party machinery, and strategising. He ensures that he is in Lucknow every evening for meetings with party leaders.

Madhya Pradesh Congress MP from Ujjain, Premchand Guddu, is taking care of party's campaign in Meerut region of Uttar Pradesh. Like Singh, he has rented a house there.

But Uma Bharti has a higher profile: not only she is BJP's crowd-puller campaigner in UP, but is being touted as a candidate for chief ministerial post. She is contesting election from the crucial Charkhari seat in Bundelkhand region of the northern state.

Bharti, once a prominent face of Ram Janmabhoomi movement, is fully aware that success in Uttar Pradesh will catapult her to a larger role within BJP and in the national politics.

Another prominent politician from Madhya Pradesh, BJP's National General Secretary Narendra Singh Tomar, who is party's in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, too is active in preparations for the polls. He too is camping in UP.