The much-awaited visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to tribal-dominated Balaghat of Madhya Pradesh was scuttled by bad weather as the helicopter carrying him could not land.
Shah returned to Raipur in Chhattisgarh from where he had started for Balaghat after a public meeting at Durg. The home minister was expected to return to New Delhi from the Chhattisgarh capital.
In Durg of Chhattisgarh, Shah attacked the Congress government, led by Bhupesh Baghel, accusing it of breaking poll promises, and said the huge gathering indicated that the countdown for the Baghel government had started. “Baghel sahib, you should be ashamed, you have broken so many promises that the people are now eagerly awaiting the polls. As soon as elections are held, your chair will be gone and a BJP government will be formed,” the Union home minister said.
Shah also administered an oath to the people to form a BJP government in Chhattisgarh in the 2023 assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
He listed the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led Union government, which completed nine years in power and attacked the previous Congress governments at the Centre. He said there were scams amounting to Rs 12 lakh crore during the 10-year rule of Congress preceding 2013, whereas PM Modi has given a transparent government.
He said the Congress insulted Lord Ram for 70 years after Independence and mentioned that the temple at Ayodhya will be open to the public in January 2024. He targeted the Congress government in the state for failing to provide employment or employment allowance to youth, giving just Rs 12,000 crore for rice procurement against Rs 74,000 crore by the Union government, increasing the debt on the state to Rs 1 lakh crore, deaths of newborn babies and poor health infrastructure among others. He claimed that the Centre provided Rs 3 lakh crore to Chhattisgarh during the past nine years.
Baghel, who had tweeted earlier in the day asking Shah to ban the movie Adipurush, which has maligned the image of Ramayan and Lord Ram during his visit to the state that was the abode of the maternal grandparents of Lord Ram, later expressed regret through another tweet that no such ban was announced.
Chouhan holds fort at Balaghat
As Shah’s programme got cancelled, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP chief V.D. Sharma held the fort at Balaghat public meeting, but the enthusiasm seemed to have died down.
Chouhan, for a while, forgot to mention the flagging off of the Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra – a five-day rally of the BJP to honour the 16th-century tribal queen of Gondwana kingdom whose martyrdom day is on June 24, 1564. He had finished his speech and started to leave, and then came back to announce the flagging-off of the rally to be led by Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste.
The rally was to be flagged off by Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to be present at Shahdol on the conclusion of the rally on June 27. Five rallies are being simultaneously taken out from five points – Balaghat, Chhindwara, Singrampur in Damoh and Dhauhni of Sidhi district in Madhya Pradesh and Kallinjar fort in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh (birthplace of Rani Durgavati) and converge at Shahdol.
This public event of Shah that was to include a road show too, though planned as part of the mega outreach campaign (maha jansampark abhiyan) of the BJP on the occasion of the completion of nine years of PM Modi’s rule at Centre, was being considered an election campaign launch event for the Madhya Pradesh BJP and thus crucial. It was also being looked upon as an important step in BJP’s outreach to the tribal voters of Madhya Pradesh – Balaghat being a tribal-dominated district of Mahakoshal region where the Congress has upper hand.
In absence of Shah, Sharma enumerated the achievements of the Modi government at the Centre during the past nine years and Chouhan government in the state, highlighting the fact that service to the poor and their welfare was the main aim of the party.
Chouhan spoke of his pet schemes like the Ladli Behna Yojana, the earn-and-learn scheme for the youth, an additional Rs 6,000 per year for the farmers under Kisan Samman Nidhi and targeted the Congress for keeping the state in bad shape before 2003 and failing to fulfill promises during the 15 months government between 2018-2020. He also said the Kamal Nath government had discontinued many welfare schemes meant for women and youth.
The CM announced that from next year, the state government will purchase the summer paddy too at minimum support price (MSP). He then administered an oath to people saying that they will work to ensure the saffron party's victory in the state in the 2023 assembly polls and at Centre in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, the Congress took a dig at the cancellation of Shah's programme. Media advisor to MP Congress, Piyush Babele, shared a video apparently showing empty chairs at Balaghat venue and questioned whether cancellation of Shah's visit was due to bad weather or indifference of the people. Spokesperson Sangeeta Sharma tweeted "today showers of rain stopped showers of jumlas (false statements. Amit Shah's Balaghat visit cancelled."