Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J P Nadda on Sunday appealed to people to reject the opposition bloc INDIA, which he alleged was spreading "hatred" and "poison" and attacking India's culture and tradition.
Speaking at a function in Chitrakoot city of Madhya Pradesh ahead of the assembly polls due this year-end, Nadda also urged people to make the BJP victorious in the state and also at the Centre in the next Lok Sabha elections to help the country become the third largest economy in the world.
Later, amid slogans of "Bharat Mata ki Jai", Nadda flagged off the BJP's 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' from Chitrakoot.
BJP's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra, standing on a vehicle of the yatra, waved party flags as the crowd chanted "Vande Matram" and "Bharat Mata ki Jai".
“Rahul Gandhi's 'Mohabbat ki Dukaan' has turned out to be 'nafrat failane wali dukaan' (spreading hatred). The opposition (alliance) that met in Mumbai a couple of days ago was attacking India's culture, traditional and religion," Nadda claimed at the function before flagging off the yatra.
He said a big and strong constituent of the opposition alliance - DMK - has attacked the Sanatana Dharma. “The (opposition) alliance is attacking our religion,” Nadda said.
“Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin's son Udhayanidhi Stalin has remarked that the Sanatana Dharma should be abolished. He had likened it to the coronavirus, malaria,” the BJP chief said.
"Throw away such an alliance which is against our Sanatana Dharma and spreading poison. They want to abolish it (Sanatana Dharma), eradicate them,” Nadda said.
He appealed to people shower their blessings on the BJP in the December 2023 MP assembly polls and in November 2024 (general elections) for making the country's economy emerge as the third largest in the world.
“During economic slowdown in the world, there is a ray of hope that the Indian economy is the fastest growing one across the globe,” he said.
It is believed that Lord Ram spent a major part of his 14-year exile in Chitrakoot.
The BJP's yatra starting from Chitrakoot will end on September 22 at the famous Ram Raja Temple in Niwari district of Bundelkhand region, a BJP leader said.
The BJP had won the Chitrakoot assembly seat in 2008 when its candidate Surendra Singh Gaharwar emerged victorious.
This time, Gaharwar's name has figured in the BJP's first list released last month as candidate for the Chitrakoot seat.
The Niwari seat is held by BJP MLA Anil Jain. Four such yatras will also be taken out from other places in MP in the next week, BJP leaders said.
During the course of the yatras, the BJP will reach out to the people through large public meetings and highlight welfare schemes of the Centre and the state and their achievements.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address a meeting of BJP workers to mark the culmination of these five mass-contact programmes on September 25 in state capital Bhopal, party leaders said.
September 25 is the birth anniversary of the late Deendayal Upadhyaya, a top leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh that later became the BJP.
The yatra will pass through the Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions of Madhya Pradesh.
In the 2018 assembly polls, the BJP had won 24 of the 30 seats in the Vindhya region and 15 out of 26 seats in the Bundelkhand region.
BJP leaders said these five yatras will cover 10,643 km by crisscrossing 210 of the state's 230 assembly constituencies before reaching Bhopal.
The formal culmination of the yatras will take place on September 25 in Bhopal with a Karyakarta Mahakumbh', they said.
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