BJP’s ‘Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra’ has dual aim in MP — ‘Gond pride, women empowerment’

New Delhi: Forward of meeting elections in Madhya Pradesh, to be held later this yr, 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 Occasion (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 is able to 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 claimed 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 cross by way of completely different areas which maintain historic significance within the Gond queen’s life, together with her birthplace, the place she acquired 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 completely different routes.

Whereas BJP leaders preserve that the yatra is geared toward participating the tribal group as a part of the BJP’s intensive nationwide outreach, political specialists counsel that these efforts to have interaction with the group present that the celebration doesn’t see the tribal group as its pure vote financial institution.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samir Oraon, additionally the nationwide president of the celebration’s ST Morcha, nevertheless, maintains that the Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra will not be being organised with an eye fixed 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 achieved a lot work in tribal-majority areas by way of numerous central authorities schemes, and even in Madhya Pradesh, numerous tribals have benefited from these schemes,” mentioned Oraon.

In response to BJP’s Sumer Singh Solanki, by way of the yatra, the celebration is attempting to succeed in the plenty with the message of girls empowerment. “The BJP has at all times enhanced the delight of the tribal group by way of its numerous initiatives. It’s the BJP that has not solely labored to incorporate tribal heroes in historical past however has additionally made the frequent public conscious of their contributions. This yatra is part of one such initiative,” he advised ThePrint.

Yatindra Singh Sisodia, professor and director on the Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Analysis in Ujjain, advised 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 are usually not its pure vote financial institution and is striving to carry them into the celebration’s fold completely.”

Sisodia recalled that in December final yr, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led state authorities organised a yatra to mark the dying 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 response to 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 essentially 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 celebration is claimed to be going through anti-incumbency because it has been in energy within the state since 2003, barring Kamal Nath-led Congress authorities’s transient tenure (2018-20).

Citing the share of tribals within the state’s inhabitants, Sisodia identified that no political celebration can ignore “this vital vote financial institution”.

“Within the 2018 elections, the SC/ST seats made a major contribution. This (Gaurav) yatra is a part of a sequence of actions that the BJP has been endeavor to have interaction with the tribals and shouldn’t be seen as an remoted incident. Over the previous yr, 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 yr within the state, the train is a part of an ongoing tribal outreach throughout the nation, not simply in Madhya Pradesh. “BJP is the largest nationwide celebration which works around the clock, all twelve months of the yr,” he provides.

Citing the yatra final yr to honour Tantya Bhil, Solanki mentioned, “Once we undertake such yatras, the group will get united, and other people, particularly kids, get to know who these heroes have been and what they did.”

It’s also vital to notice right here that the BJP has been selling how all main monuments in-built honour of Rani Durgavati have been constructed throughout its stint in energy. 

“Tales of Rani Durgavati’s valour shall be introduced to the individuals. As well as, Modi authorities’s initiatives for STs up to now 9 years and MP authorities’s up to now 18 years will even be highlighted,” mentioned Sisodia.

He added that the message of girls 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 beneath 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 advantage of tribals,” he mentioned.

Sisodia defined that by way of this yatra, the BJP will even 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 response to 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 try for his or her betterment.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

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