To woo the Dalit votes, MP BJP to take Ravidas Samrasata Yatra from five places in Madhya Pradesh

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

BJP in Madhya Pradesh will start statewide Sant Ravidas Samarasta Yatra from Tuesday to woo the SC voters before the upcoming assembly elections in the state. Five senior party leaders including chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, union minister and MP election committee convenor Narendra Singh Tomar, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP SC Morcha president Lal Singh Arya and state ministers Bhupendra Singh and Usha Thakur will flag off the yatra from five different places in the state. The yatra will cross through 40 districts of the state and all five yatras will culminate on August 12 in Sagar.

PM Narendra Modi would be present on the culmination day, and he would lay the foundation stone of Rs 100 crore Sant Ravidas temple in Sagar. “The construction of Sant Ravidas temple was announced by chief minister Shivraj Chouhan in February this year on the occasion of birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas,” Lal Sigh Arya told ET. “During the yatra, soil will be collected from 53,000 villages and water will be collected from all the rivers falling on the yatra route.

This will be used in the construction of the temple.” Arya told ET that Ravidasi saints, Buddhist monks and followers of Kabir would be invited to speak during the yatra. SCs account for around 16 per cent of the state population. MP has 35 SC reserved assembly seats and in 2018, the BJP won 20 seats.

The party leaders hope that with this yatra, the party would establish a connection with the SC voters of the state. “A lot of work has been done for the SC community by the central government led by PM Modi and the state government. We are hopeful of winning more SC reserved seats in upcoming elections,” Arya told ET.