Bhopal, Sep 3 (IANS): BJP's President J. P Nadda flagged off 'Jan Aashirvaad' yatra from Chitrkoot, which is said to be the 'karmabhoomi' of Lord Ram where he spend 14 years of exile.
Chitrakoot assembly constituency of Satna district in Vindhya region is border area between states - Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The Congress had won Chitrakoot seat in 2018 elections.
The state BJP unit led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and V. D. Sharma have decided to launch five 'Jan Aashirvaad' yatras from five different regions ahead of the assembly polls.
Before flagging of the first of five yatras, Nadda addressed the gathering of party workers and people. He said that the yatra will highlight the developments done in the last two decades under the BJP rule in Madhya Pradesh.
BJP president read out the part of MP BJP government's report card, which Minister Amit Shah had released two weeks ago in Bhopal. Like other BJP leader, he claimed Madhya Pradesh is now "no more a BIMARU state".
In 2002, the per capita income of Madhya Pradesh was Rs 11,117 which is in 2023 has reached up to Rs 1.40 lakh. Seats for medical students were around 620, which now has gone more than 4000. Degree colleges were around 310 in 2002, and the number had increased up to more than 500 in 2023.
"A total 112 industrial areas have been established in Madhya Pradesh in the past two decades, which is 24 per cent more than the Congress government in 2003. Madhya Pradesh is now a developing state as it has removed the tag of BIMARU," Nadda said.
Four more 'Jan Aashirvaad' yatras will be flagged off by top BJP leaders in the next three days. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will flag off one of the yatras from Neemach district in Ujjain division on Monday.
Amit Shah is scheduled to flag of two yatras from Mandala district (Mahakaushal) and Sheopur district (Gwalior-Chambal) on Tuesday while Nitin Gadkari will flag off the last yatra from Khandwa district of Indore division on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address a meeting of BJP workers to mark the culmination of these five mass-contact programmes on September 25 in Bhopal, party leaders said. September 25 is the birth anniversary of the late Deendayal Upadhyay.
BJP’s V. D. Sharma said that these five yatras will cover more than 10,500 km by crisscrossing 210 of MP’s 230 assembly constituencies before reaching Bhopal.
In the November 2018 MP assembly polls, the Congress won 114 of 230 seats while the BJP finished second with 109 seats. The Congress led by Kamal Nath formed the government with support of independent MLAs, however, his government was toppled after Jyotiraditya Scindia along with 22 MLAs had shifted into the BJP. And therefore, Chief Minister Chouhan led the BJP government had back into power in March 2020.