Bhopal, Jul 26 (IANS): Around four months before the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, the opposition Congress is set to embark on a massive campaign for conserving the Narmada, river which is considered the lifeline of the central Indian state.

For this purpose, the Congress has decided to form a ‘Narmada Seva Sena’. During an interaction with reporters at the party headquarters in Bhopal on Wednesday, former Chief Minister and Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath said the ‘Narmada Seva Sena’ would be a non-political organisation and any one can join it. “Even Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan can become a Narmada Seva Sena member,” Kamal Nath said in a sarcastic tone. Under the state level apex ‘Narmada Seva Sena’ committee, a large number of local committees will be formed across the river’s 1077-km stretch in Madhya Pradesh. The Narmada originates from Amarkantak (Anuppur district) and last points in Barwani-Alirajpur districts. This will perhaps be the first time in the country that any political party will embark on a campaign to purge and conserve a major river ahead of elections.

Political observers believe that the issue of the Narmada is a matter of faith for the people of Madhya Pradesh, and the Congress has played a master stroke ahead of the assembly polls. Former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh’s 192-day long ‘Narmada Yatra’ that was concluded around four months before the assembly elections in 2018, had made a huge impact and the Congress had won 36 out of 65 assembly seats scattered along the banks of the Narmada.