BHOPAL: As the ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatras’ of the ruling BJP enter the last leg in the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, the saffron party has put to field its heavyweights for the campaigning.
In the last two days, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma took part in the yatra in Katni, Guna and Harda districts, while Union Minister Smriti Irani addressed the yatra in the state’s largest district – Chhindwara – which over four decades has been state Congress chief Kamal Nath’s pocket-borough.
Former union minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad was in Guna district on Sunday, which is the home district of ex-MP CM and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh.
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh deputy CMs – Devendra Fadnavis and Brijesh Pathak – will join the yatras on Monday.
The BJP, for a few days, has been trying to corner the Congress over the anti-Sanatan Dharm remark made by DMK leaders, Karnataka minister and Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge.
Smriti Irani questioned the “silence” of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his family members over the controversy. “I’ve been told that Kamal Nath is organising events of Hindu religious preachers in Chhindwara. But if he is an ardent Hindu, he should have the courage to ask the Gandhi family to break its deliberate silence on the anti-Sanatan remarks and oust the DMK from the opposition alliance,” Irani said on Saturday evening.
She also mocked the INDIA bloc “boycotting” 14 TV anchors, questioning that if they (Opposition) are so “afraid of 14 journalists”, how it will face PM Narendra Modi in the next general elections?
Speaking in the same tone, the Assam CM Sarma said, “Abusing Hindus and their religion has become Congress style. Rahul Gandhi should have the courage to act against such leaders who insult Hindu religion.”