With an eye on Scheduled Caste (SC) votes — which comprise 16-17% of the electorate in Madhya Pradesh, wielding influence in 35 reserved seats and even beyond — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the State is set to launch the ‘Sant Ravidas Samarasta Yatra’.
The yatra will start from five different points — Balaghat, Singrauli, Dhar, Sheopur, and Neemuch — and cover nearly 50 districts before culminating in Sagar district on August 12, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the ₹100 crore Sant Ravidas temple in honour of the Bhakti-era saint revered by SC communities.
On July 25, Cabinet Minister Bhupendra Singh flagged off the yatra from Balaghat, while Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched from Sheopur, BJP’s national general secretary Kailsh Vijayvargiya from Dhar, and the national head of ST/SC cell of the BJP Lal Singh Arya from Neemuch flagged off the other yatras. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was slated to flag off the yatra originating in Singrauli but this launch event was rescheduled following a glitch in the helicopter.
