New Delhi: Forward of meeting elections in Madhya Pradesh, to be held later this 12 months, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan flagged off the six-day Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra within the state’s Balaghat district Thursday. The train, which coincides with Balidan Divas (martyrdom day) of the Sixteenth-Century Gond queen, is being seen as an try by the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) to faucet into the votes of the Gond group.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, is slated to attend the concluding ceremony of the yatra, which can happen concurrently on 5 routes earlier than ending in Shahdol on 27 June.
Rani Durgavati, a princess of the Chandela dynasty of what’s now Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, was married to Gond king Dalpat Shah in 1542. Following his demise, she is alleged to have dominated over the Garha Katanga kingdom — present-day Damoh — between 1550 and 1564, earlier than she was killed in a battle with Mughal forces on 24 June, 1564.
Over the subsequent six days, the BJP’s Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra will move by totally different areas which maintain historic significance within the Gond queen’s life, together with her birthplace, the place she received married and the northern, japanese and westerns boundaries of her kingdom.
स्वराज और स्वधर्म के लिए लड़ते हुए अपना बलिदान देने वाली वीरांगना रानी दुर्गावती जी का चरित्र हमें प्रेरणा देता है। वह जनजातीय गौरव की प्रतीक हैं, मैं उन्हें प्रणाम करता हूँ।
आज बालाघाट जिले से वीरांगना रानी दुर्गावती ‘गौरव यात्रा’ का शुभारंभ किया। pic.twitter.com/hFfQXLmWhS
— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) June 22, 2023
The yatra begins concurrently Thursday from Balaghat, Chhindwara, Singrampur (Jabera-Damoh), Kalinjar Fort, and Dhauhani. Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste, Betul MP Durgadas Uikey, Rajya Sabha MP Sumer Singh Solanki, Shahdol MP Himadri Singh, Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Vijay Shah, and former MP Sampatiya Uikey have been tasked with overseeing the yatra alongside its totally different routes.
Whereas BJP leaders preserve that the yatra is geared toward partaking the tribal group as a part of the BJP’s intensive nationwide outreach, political specialists recommend that these efforts to have interaction with the group present that the get together doesn’t see the tribal group as its pure vote financial institution.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samir Oraon, additionally the nationwide president of the get together’s ST Morcha, nonetheless, maintains that the Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra will not be being organised with a watch on the upcoming meeting elections.
“That is a part of the Maha Jansampark Abhiyan (mega outreach) to mark the completion of 9 years of the Modi authorities on the Centre. The federal government has accomplished a lot work in tribal-majority areas by numerous central authorities schemes, and even in Madhya Pradesh, numerous tribals have benefited from these schemes,” mentioned Oraon.
In line with BJP’s Sumer Singh Solanki, by the yatra, the get together is making an attempt to achieve the plenty with the message of ladies empowerment. “The BJP has all the time enhanced the pleasure of the tribal group by its numerous initiatives. It’s the BJP that has not solely labored to incorporate tribal heroes in historical past however has additionally made the widespread public conscious of their contributions. This yatra is part of one such initiative,” he informed ThePrint.
Yatindra Singh Sisodia, professor and director on the Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Analysis in Ujjain, informed ThePrint, “Whether or not it’s the promise to re-implement the PESA Act (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996) or observing Birsa Munda’s birthday as ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Divas’, the BJP recognises that tribals should not its pure vote financial institution and is striving to deliver them into the get together’s fold completely.”
Sisodia recalled that in December final 12 months, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led state authorities organised a yatra to mark the loss of life anniversary of freedom fighter Tantya Bhil, who’s seen as an icon of the Bhil group.
“This programme (Gaurav Yatra) is being held within the Gond belt of the Mahakoshal area, which incorporates Betul, Chhindwara, Narsinghpur, Shahdol, and different areas. If the BJP addresses these two communities, Bhil and Gond, it would cowl 85 per cent of the tribal inhabitants,” he added.
Additionally Learn: Queen who fought Akbar, married out of caste—Rani Durgawati exercised selection 450 years in the past
‘Concerted efforts to woo tribal voters’
In line with the 2011 Census, Madhya Pradesh has the best tribal inhabitants of any state in India. Tribals account for 21.1 per cent of the inhabitants of MP the place 47 meeting seats are reserved for the group.
Inside the state’s tribal inhabitants, the Bhil tribe is probably the most populous and accounts for an estimated 37.7 per cent of MP’s Scheduled Tribe (ST) inhabitants, adopted by the Gond tribe, which constitutes 35.6 per cent.
Within the 2018 meeting polls, the BJP received 16 of the 47 seats reserved for STs in MP — down from 31 in 2013. Furthermore, at this level, the get together is alleged to be going through anti-incumbency because it has been in energy within the state since 2003, barring Kamal Nath-led Congress authorities’s temporary tenure (2018-20).
Citing the share of tribals within the state’s inhabitants, Sisodia identified that no political get together can ignore “this important vote financial institution”.
“Within the 2018 elections, the SC/ST seats made a big contribution. This (Gaurav) yatra is a part of a collection of actions that the BJP has been endeavor to have interaction with the tribals and shouldn’t be considered as an remoted incident. Over the previous 12 months, they’ve been making concerted efforts to attach with the tribal inhabitants,” he added.
In 2022, previous to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra getting into the state, CM Chouhan had rolled out the Janjatiya Gaurav Yatra (Tribal Pleasure Yatra) from Baroda Ahir village in Khandwa district — the birthplace of tribal icon Tantya Bhil. The very subsequent day, Gandhi too held a public assembly within the village related to the liberty fighter.
On the Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra, Oraon maintains that although it’s an election 12 months within the state, the train is a part of an ongoing tribal outreach throughout the nation, not simply in Madhya Pradesh. “BJP is the most important nationwide get together which works around the clock, all twelve months of the 12 months,” he provides.
Citing the yatra final 12 months to honour Tantya Bhil, Solanki mentioned, “Once we undertake such yatras, the group will get united, and other people, particularly children, get to know who these heroes had been and what they did.”
It is usually necessary to notice right here that the BJP has been selling how all main monuments inbuilt honour of Rani Durgavati had been constructed throughout its stint in energy.
“Tales of Rani Durgavati’s valour will probably be offered to the folks. As well as, Modi authorities’s initiatives for STs up to now 9 years and MP authorities’s up to now 18 years may also be highlighted,” mentioned Sisodia.
He added that the message of ladies empowerment will stay a central theme of the yatra, together with the state authorities’s numerous schemes, together with the Ladli Laxmi Yojana.
“The Modi authorities’s schemes have benefited tribals immensely. Extra homes have been constructed for tribals underneath the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna. Sambal (a part of Mission Shakti), Seekho Kamao and a number of other state authorities schemes can be found for the good thing about tribals,” he mentioned.
Sisodia defined that by this yatra, the BJP may also make an effort to additional its claims that the Congress received the 2018 polls “based mostly on lies” and that it “misguided” the tribal group in the course of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. In line with him, the BJP will attempt to persuade tribal voters that had the Congress taken initiatives to empower the tribal group, there would have been no want for the BJP to attempt for his or her betterment.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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