MP BJP’S ‘ashirwad yatra’ ends abruptly
BHOPAL: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) much-touted Jan Ashirwad Yatra ended at Jabalpur Friday without meeting its target of covering all 230 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, its three senior leaders said on condition of anonymity.
Though there was no official announcement from the BJP, one of the organisers of the yatra said it was terminated because just one was month left for November 28 polls and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was leading the yatra, was finding it difficult to find time for important meetings to decide candidates, manifesto and strategy.
The yatra was flagged off by party chief Amit Shah in Ujjain on July 14 and was supposed to cover all constituencies by September 25. But it failed to cover areas in the Gwalior-chambal and Malwa regions. The latter is a BJP stronghold but the former has significant Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party presence.
Before the 2013 assembly polls, the yatra had covered 206 constituencies in about two months but this time it could cover only 187.
The BJP’S yatra in-charge Prabhat Jha refused to comment on whether yatra was over but said the CM will now “go to the public for seeking a mandate. “He will address public meetings across the state.”
The Congress claimed the yatra was terminated because of poor response. State Congress media in charge Shobha Oza said, “Government officials, schoolchildren and beneficiaries of schemes stopped attending the yatra after the model code of conduct and the CM got exposed for his so-called popularity.”