BHOPAL: Eyeing to return to power nearly three years after its 15-month-long government collapsed under the weight of its own disgruntled MLAs, opposition Congress launched seven ‘Jan Akrosh Yatras’ in the assembly poll-bound Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.
The seven Yatras which will travel 11,400 kms while covering all 230 assembly segments in 15 days are being led by seven senior leaders, including current and former leader of oppositions, former state party chiefs, former union ministers and ex-MP ministers.
At a time when the ruling BJP has been attacking the opposition’s INDIA bloc, particularly the Congress, over the DMK and Congress leaders anti-Sanatan Dharma remark, all the seven Jan Akrosh Yatras of the grand old party started on the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.
Importantly, all the seven senior Congress leaders, including LoP Dr Govind Singh, former LoP Ajay Singh ‘Rahul,’ former union ministers Arun Yadav started the Yatras after offering prayers at prominent Hindu temples in different parts of the state, state Congress’s media advisor Piyush Babele told this newspaper.
While the Congress started its 11,400 km Yatras on Tuesday, the ruling BJP’s 10,500-plus km long five Jan Ashirwad Yatras are approaching their last stretch. Just a day after Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had in one of the Yatras, requested PM Narendra Modi to send Congress’s Gandhi family to the moon through the Chandrayan, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami participated the Yatra in Sagar district of Bundelkhand region.
In Betul district, meanwhile, ex-Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi formed part of the BJP’s Yatra, accusing the Congress of treating the tribal just as vote bank. “Despite ruling for decades, the Congress has seen tribals as vote banks, while the BJP has worked for their welfare,” he said.