The Madhya Pradesh ruling BJP flagged off ‘Sant Ravidas Samras Yatras’ from four different parts on Tuesday which will travel through 46 out of 52 districts of the state in the next 18 days.
The yatras will culminate in Sagar district’s Basturma on August 12, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the Rs. 100-crore Sant Ravidas Temple.
Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who has been appointed as the convenor of state elections committee launched the yatra from Sheopur.
BJP National General Secretary Kailsh Vijayvargiya from Dhar; State Urban Development Minister Bhupendra Singh from Balaghat; and National Head of ST/SC cell Lal Singh Arya from Neemuch were also present.
“During the yatra, soil will be collected from 53,000 villages and water will be collected from all the rivers falling on the yatra route. This will be used in the construction of the temple. The priests will spread the message of social harmony,” National Head of ST/SC cell Lal Singh Arya told IANS.
Notably, the yatra has been flagged off at the time when the opposition Congress have launched a scathing attack on the BJP government over atrocities against the tribals and ST/SC people in Madhya Pradesh.
The state has 16 per cent Dalit votes and the BJP is trying to douse the emerging resentment with its tag line — sabka saath, sabka vikas — to gain their support in the upcoming elections.
In 2013 assembly polls — when BJP won a total 165 seats — it won 28 seats of the 35 SC seats. The Congress managed to win only four, followed by the Bahujan Samaj Party, which won three.
In 2018, BJP won only 18 of the 35 reserved seats.
The Sagar district in Bundelkhand, where the foundation ceremony of the temple will be held, has a Dalit population of 20-25 per cent. The yatra was announced by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in February.
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