Sadhvi Pragya files nomination from Bhopal

BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur Monday filed her nomination papers for the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal amid chanting of mantras.

Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case currently out on bail, filed her nomination based on what she claimed was an "auspicious time" after arriving at the collectorate here with 11 priests who chanted mantras.

The 48-year-old right-wing activist said she would file her papers "formally" Tuesday.

Sitting BJP Member of Parliament from Bhopal Alok Sanjar, who accompanied Thakur, said she will formally complete the nomination process Tuesday.

"I will file my nomination papers formally tomorrow. I filed it today because it was an auspicious time. I had vowed that I would file my nomination in a state of full happiness and keeping God in mind," she told reporters.

Thakur said she chose the time to file her nomination Monday based on "choghadiya", a Hindu Vedic calendar.

The wheelchair-bound sadhvi, however, had trouble reaching the first floor of the collectorate, where the office of the district returning officer is located, to submit her nomination papers.

The staff at the collectorate struggled to carry the wheelchair, on which Thakur was seated, along the flight of stairs.

"The stairs were congested and the women staff deployed there to lift my wheelchair faced a lot of difficulties.

"So I have requested that the officer concerned accept my papers on the ground floor itself when I submit them formally," she said.

Thakur, making her electoral debut, is pitted against senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. Bhopal, a BJP bastion since 1989, will vote on May 12.

Soon after her candidature was announced from Bhopal, Thakur courted controversy with her remarks on 26/11 martyr and former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and later about demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.