Gaur’s widow to contest on BJP ticket

Malini Gaur, at whose Indore residence Sadhvi Pragya Singh had stayed for days, will contest on BJP ticket from Indore-4 constituency.

Malini Gaur, at whose Indore residence Sadhvi Pragya Singh had stayed for days, will contest on BJP ticket from Indore-4 constituency. “She is a Sadhvi, I respect her,” she told The Indian Express when asked about her association with the accused in the Malegaon blast case. The 47-year-old has never contested any election before and remained in the background while her husband Laxman Singh Gaur took the centerstage.

The former education minister, who represented the Indore-4 constituency, died in a road accident early this year. The Sadhvi had stayed in the family’s new home for a long time after the minister’s death.

Malini Gaur featured in the third list of candidates released by the BJP on Monday, when the BJP formally rushed to defend the Sadhvi saying there was no evidence yet against her. The Sadhvi was photographed along with BJP president Rajnath Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, when they had gone to Gaur’s residence to offer condolences.

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On Monday afternoon, the mood was visibly different. BJP supporters thronged her house to congratulate her. She said the photograph had been misused to score political points because leaders from other parties had also visited her to offer condolences.

She said she was unsure if the family’s closeness to the blast accused would go in her favour or against. “It’s for the rivals to decide.” She said she had campaigned for her husband and continued his unfinished work after his death.

Laxman Singh Gaur, a popular politician, was a staunch RSS follower. On getting the education portfolio, he had tried to make Sanskrit compulsory from Class I and introduced ‘Guru Paad Pujan’ wherein students were supposed to wash their teachers’ feet on Teachers’ Day.

A graduate, Malini Gaur runs a CBSE school on the Agra-Mumbai Road. After her husband’s death, she had organised a convention of thousands of women to mobilise opinion on the Amarnath shrine board issue.

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Incidentally, PWD Minister and official spokesman of the MP Government Kailash Vijayvargiya, who offered legal assistance to the Sadhvi and visited the family of Sham Sahu, another accused in the custody of Mumbai ATS, will contest from Mahu constituency.