Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2023: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of a ₹100-crore temple dedicated to social reformer Sant Ravidas in the Sagar district where he will also address a public meeting. Notably, this will be PM Modi’s second visit in just over a month to poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
Speaking to PTI, MP Cooperative and Public Services Minister Arvind Bhadoria said, “Modiji will arrive in Khajuraho from New Delhi and take a helicopter to reach the Badtuma area in Sagar district around 2 pm to lay the foundation stone for a temple (dedicated to Sant Ravidas) and a museum coming up at a cost ₹100 crore.”
After this, PM Modi will reach the venue of the public meeting near the Dhana airstrip, about 20 km from Badtuma, said Bhadoria, who is also the guardian minister of Sagar district located in north-east Madhya Pradesh.
It is pertinent to note that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expecting up to 2 lakh people to attend the PM’s rally and the foundation laying ceremony for the temple dedicated to Sant Ravidas, who enjoys a nationwide following, especially among a section of Dalits.
The two programs will also mark the culmination of the ruling party’s ongoing ‘Samrasta (harmony) Yatras’, an attempt to reach out to Dalits ahead of the assembly elections.
“Five such yatras started from different parts of the state on July 25. The participants are bringing a handful of soil from 53,000 villages and water from 315 water bodies, including sacred rivers. The yatra will reach Sagar on August 11 evening,” Bhadoria told PTI.
Madhya Pradesh has 35 assembly seats, of the total 230, reserved for Scheduled Castes, and of these, the BJP won 18 in the last elections, while the Congress bagged 17. The saffron party is making attempts to strengthen its base among Dalits.
In the 2018 assembly polls, the BJP won 15 seats in Bundelkhand, while the Congress had to contend with 9. One seat each went to the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. In Sagar district, which has eight seats, the BJP won six and the Congress two in 2018.
(With PTI inputs)
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Updated: 12 Aug 2023, 09:24 AM IST