RAIPUR: The Congress on Tuesday launched its ‘Jan Aakrosh Yatras’, a pan-State outreach programme through which it aims to challenge the 18-year-old Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, which is due for election later this year. State party president Kamal Nath wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “The purpose of these yatras is to express the pain and suffering of the oppressed people due to the misrule of Shivraj government for 18 years.”
Between them, the seven yatras led by veterans of the party’s State unit will cover a distance of 11,400 km, spanning all the 230 Assembly segments. Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly Govind Singh led the campaign from Sheopur district in Gwalior-Chambal region, while former Minister Ajay Singh ‘Rahul’ launched the yatra from Rewa district of the Vindhya region. Of the remaining yatras, former Minister Arun Yadav will lead from Damoh in the Sagar division.
In his post, Mr. Nath wrote that there was public outrage against inflation, corruption, reducing incomes for farmers, and lack of women safety.
Theme song controversy
Earlier, at a press conference on Saturday, Mr. Nath and AICC in-charge for the State Randeep Singh Surjewala had said that the yatra was being launched on Ganesh Chaturthi against rampant corruption under the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government. However, just ahead of the launch, i.e. on Monday, there was a controversy surrounding the yatra with the ruling BJP claiming that the theme song was copied from the campaign song of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The ‘Jan Aakrosh Yatras’ are taking place at a time when the BJP, too, is in the last leg of its own outreach yatra. The five ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatras’ are currently heading towards Bhopal and scheduled to conclude with a mega gathering of BJP workers on September 25, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address.
