BHOPAL: Even as the uncertainty within the BJP over choosing the chief minister’s face in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh still looms large, Union Minister of Road Transports and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the credit to taking the state out of BIMARU states (an acronym of backward states) goes to CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The praise from Gadkari came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah acknowledged Chouhan for his efforts in raising literacy in tribal areas. Earlier on Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had called Chouhan as “Dhoni of politics.”
“The credit for transforming MP from a BIMARU state to the country’s power station of development goes to our popular CM. But the development which happened till now was just a trailer, as the real film is yet to start,” Gadkari said while flagging off the BJP’s last of the five Jan Ashirwad Yatras from Khandwa district in southwestern MP.
Gadkari also praised the CM for “leading the state in agriculture for seven years in a row.” Both Gadkari and Chouhan were dropped from the BJP’s parliamentary board in August 2022.
Stone pelting
Meanwhile, in western MP’s Neemuch district, the police have detained five persons in connection with the stone pelting on BJP’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra in a village of Manasa assembly segment on Tuesday evening. Chouhan, senior state BJP leaders, including home minister Narottam Mishra and state BJP chief VD Sharma, blamed the “Congress” for the attack.
“Khema Gurjar, the prime accused of the Tuesday evening attack, is associated with the Congress. State party chief Kamal Nath had recently apprehended Manipur-like stone pelting in MP, while Congress MP Digvijaya Singh had feared Nuh-like violence in the state,” state’s home minister Narottam Mishra alleged.
Congress, however, denied the allegations, saying what happened in Neemuch was due to the ire of villagers. A senior police officer in Neemuch said while villagers were upset, the attack on Yatra cannot be attributed to it.