Comparisons between Digvijay Singh, the suave and articulate chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, and Laloo Prasad Yadav, the earthy, sometimes bumbling but always crafty former chief minister of Bihar, may not be quite in order. But with a no-holds barred campaign already under way for the assembly elections due in his state later this year, Digvijay is acknowledging that if one has to conquer, stooping to Laloo's level may not be a bad idea after all.

Last week, while BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu and the party's chief ministerial nominee Uma Bharati were addressing a Dalit meeting of the state BJP at Mhow, copies of an action taken report on the Bhopal Document elaborating the Digvijay Government's Dalit agenda were quietly distributed at the meeting by Congress partymen. When irate BJP workers realised this, they made the blunder of burning copies of the report. That was just the chance Digvijay needed to attack the BJP's anti-Dalit mindset. The bitter taste of the cake Bharati offered to Hanuman was still fresh when for the second time within a week he embarrassed her. In the see-saw battle of setting and stealing agendas, Digvijay, at the moment, appears to have the edge.

For four months, Digvijay and Bharati have been playing the grab-the-Hindu-vote game. The show has meandered through several episodes-the riots over cow slaughter in Basoda, the Bhojshala reopening in Dhar, egg cake in Chhindwara and the Dalit meet fiasco in Mhow. If these have proved anything, it is that there is no beating Digvijay in realpolitik. He operates with the skill of a guerrilla warrior-hitting and vanishing into the night, leaving behind agitated, impotent victims. After the uprising over cow slaughter, he immediately clamped down on the rioters and began his own cow protection campaign. Hordes of Congress workers, especially from the minority community, took out cow rallies and illustrated how much they loved the animal. They even spread word that Digvijay drinks cow urine.

"I am a Sanatan Dharmi and I have the blessings of more sadhus and Shankaracharyas than the BJP had for its entire Ayodhya campaign,'' says Digvijay. In the matter of the reopening of the Bhojshala he insisted that the Central Government give a formal order that it be opened, not just a suggestion. He had his way, effectively ending the issue for the VHP-BJP combine. The cake episode would have been hilarious had Bharati not taken it as seriously as she did. After Bharati offered a cake at the Jaam Sanwli temple near Chhindwara, Bhopal Mayor and Digvijay protege Vibha Patel immediately attacked her for defiling the strictly vegetarian Hanuman temple by offering a cake in which egg was an ingredient. The issue seems to have stretched endlessly with Bharati first saying the cake was eggless, then claiming it was kalakand, and finally, demanding a CBI enquiry. Digvijay's team kept pushing her, with one member producing an affidavit by the vendor claiming that the cake did contain egg.

But Digvijay may as yet only be shuffling his deck of cards. He has produced another possible pundit-confounding winner by asking his ministers to hold yagnas and bhagwat paths in their constituencies. His cabinet of 50 is busy locating sites and sadhus to organise week-long Chandi Devi yagnas ranging from Laksh and Sahastra to Shat yagnas. Home Minister Mahendra Baudh is organising the Sahastra Chandi yagna at Datia, pcc office-bearers arranged for Laksh Chandi in Bhopal, and another yagna is on at Begumganj near Bina. Every holy man from Bharati's brother Swami Lodhi and Avdheshanand to Kamalkishore Nagar is busy with Congressmen and their puja path.

The 10-day Ram Navmi festival was used to push the point further, with ministers making trips to the Rawatpura Hanuman temple near Bhind. Digvijay himself visited Bamleshwari Devi in Chhattisgarh and every other temple possible during his village contact programme. Despite the occasional mismanagement-as at Bhopal where pandas rioted over non-payment-the attendance at these yagnas proves that it may be a successful diversion for the electorate. "The importance of yagnas is known to all and people come on their own to participate,'' says Baudh. And where they don't come simply to be blessed, there is an Anuradha Paudwal or a Lakhbir Lakkha to entice them with bhajans. The idea is to collect crowds and depict that Congressmen are religious, god-fearing people. If that's what the electorate wants, then that's what it will get. More than 10 lakh have attended more than 33 yagnas and bhagwat paths so far.

Unlike Shankersinh Vaghela, the Congressman whose soft Hindutva line did not click in Gujarat because of insufficient lead time and Chief Minister Narendra Modi's overpowering persona, Digvijay is willing to take chances through some ingenious planning. He has prepared a counter for every gimmick he thinks the BJP will try. Immediately after the Gujarat elections, he took on the BJP on the issue of patriotism with his own Jhanda Uncha Rahe Hamara campaign, with long marches organised and national flags distributed mostly through the administration, "The effectiveness of the campaign can be gauged from the fact that the BJP has since not talked about patriotism at all,'' says former power minister N.P. Prajapati.

HINDUER THAN THOU: Digvijay at a yagna (left); Bharati was left with a bitter aftertaste

After VHP General Secretary Pravin Togadia's forays into Dhar where he was able to resurrect the Bhojshala issue, Digvijay threatened to arrest him. Soon after, he had VHP leader Acharya Dharmendra arrested for making inflammatory speeches in Ujjain. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accepts that he consulted and was encouraged by Digvijay to arrest Togadia in Ajmer. Says a BJP leader from the rival camp: "The idea behind raising non-issues such as the cake and the burning of the Bhopal Document seems to be to irritate and aggravate Uma Bharati who has a track record of blowing her fuse and leaving when things get out of hand." A view supported by the pleasure Digvijay takes in issuing statements like "God has punished Bharati" and "the BJP has no respect for Dalits as they burnt their demands". The chief minister also methodically took the cake and Hanuman issue to tribal areas where the BJP and RSS have painstakingly built a Hindu platform by projecting Hanuman as the god for tribals. Now by repeatedly declaring in these areas that Bharati has "insulted" Hanuman he is conveying a clear and uncomplicated message.

Lost, of course, in this game of one-upmanship is what should have been the main concern-development or the lack of it in the 10 years of Digvijay rule. There is neither power nor roads nor employment generation. With Digvijay stealing the Hindu card, the BJP may finally be adopting the bread and butter issues as their poll plank. As Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley declared at a recent rally: "The failures of the Digvijay Government will be our poll plank.'' If real issues take precedence over religious ones, Digvijay may find it more difficult to confuse voters.