RAIPUR : With the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections due later this year, a battle of yatras has begun in the state. While the BJP government in the state launched a ‘Vikas Yatra’ from the Maoist-affected Dantewada district, about 400 km south of Raipur on Saturday, the Congress plans to counter it with ‘Vikas Khojo Yatra’.The BJP yatra led by Chief Minister Raman Singh was flagged-off by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The Vikas Yatra will be carried out in two phases during which the CM will address around 90 public meetings and conduct 16 road shows across the 62 Assembly segments.The first phase of the yatra will continue for three days. “The objective is to create awareness among the masses about the development and achievements of the government, besides the welfare schemes meant for the people,” the CM said.
The Opposition claimed its ‘Vikas Khojo Yatra’ was intended to expose the government’s claims. Alleging that the Vikas Yatra was BJP’s ‘election campaign’ of which the taxpayers will bear the burden, state Congress president Bhupesh Baghel said, “There is no truth in vikas (development), as claimed by the Raman Singh government. It’s nothing more than a fiction in Chhattisgarh.”Singh retorted, “The Congress that can’t recognise vikas should better call their party president Rahul Gandhi to visit my constituency Rajnandgaon and compare it with the development of Amethi (in UP),” the CM said.