Two days ahead of the crucial polling in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a few massive tribal outreach programmes in neighbouring Jharkhand.
Tribal community is a decisive factor in the poll-bound states.
Modi travelled to Ulihatu Village, the birth place of tribal icon Birsa Munda, to launch the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, a programme aimed at the saturation of the government schemes. The Yatra is aimed at reaching out to tribals, creating awareness and providing benefits of welfare schemes like essential financial services, electricity connections, access to LPG cylinders, housing, food security, nutrition and healthcare.
The prime minister flagged off publicity vans marking the launch of the Yatra which will start from districts with significant tribal populations. Similar vans will be flagged off by important dignitaries like governors, chief ministers, union ministers, ministers of state among others from 68 districts across the country with significant tribal population. By January 25, 2024, the Yatra will cover all districts across the country.
In the second programme, the prime minister launched PM JANMAN or PM Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan – a programme for the ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups’. There are 75 PVTGs in 18 states and Union Territories living in 22,544 villages (220 districts) having a population of around 28 lakhs.
Under PM JANMAN, Modi said, the government will reach out to tribal groups and primitive tribes who still live in forests. The government is going to spend Rs 24,000 crores on this mega campaign which aims to provide the PVTG families habitations with basic facilities such as road and telecom connectivity, electricity, safe housing, clean drinking water and sanitation, improved access to education, health and nutrition and sustainable livelihood opportunities.
In the third announcement, Modi released the 15th installment of Kisan Samman Nidhi with an amount of about Rs 18,000 crores. It will reach the bank accounts of more than 8 crore beneficiaries. Under the scheme, till now, more than Rs 2.62 lakh crores have been transferred to farmers’ accounts in 14 installments.
The BJP has promised to give an additional Rs 6,000 every year to farmers in Madhya Pradesh apart from the Centre’s installment of same amount under the Kisan Samman Nidhi.
As the current round of elections is expected to be a tough fight, the BJP-led NDA government is going all out to woo every significant section of the society. The schemes launched on Wednesday have direct impact on the tribal populations in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and even Telangana.
Madhya Pradesh has the highest population of tribals in the country and has 47 reserved seats out of the 230. These reserved seats had helped the Congress to form the government as the party had won 30 seats in the 2018 assembly polls, a jump of 15 seats over the previous polls.
This explains the BJP’s push for the tribal vote in the recent years. The central government has been highlighting the contributions of the tribal heroes in the freedom struggle and celebrating their contributions. The election of Droupadi Murmu, a tribal leader, as the President of India was the highest point of this engagement with the community.
In Chhatisgarh, the second phase of the polling will be held on November 17 along with Madhya Pradesh. In 2018, the Congress had won 25 out of the 29 reserved seats, while winning all the 12 seats in tribal dominated Bastar region. Even in Rajasthan, with significant tribal population, the Congress had won 14 out of the 25 reserved seats.
The grand old party had won in all three states in 2018. In the previous 2013 polls, the BJP had won majority of the tribal seats in these three states.
During his speech, Modi recalled several tribal warriors and heroes—Govind Guru of Mangarh Dham (Rajasthan), Tantya Bhil of Madhya Pradesh, Bhima Nayak, Martyr Veer Narayan Singh of Chhattisgarh, Veer Ramji Gond of Telangana, Alluri Sitaram Raju of Andhra Pradesh, Rani Durgavati of Gond Pradesh.
