Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday released the Madhya Pradesh government's 'report card' from 2003-2023 and said the BJP government in these years successfully removed the BIMARU category (laggard) tag from the state, which, according to him, was a legacy of the Congress regime.

Shah released the government's 'report card' of 20 years at a function in the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, MP BJP president VD Sharma and state Home Minister Narottam Mishra.

The assembly elections in MP are due this year-end.

The BIMARU acronym has often been used to refer to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, to imply that these states lagged in terms of economic growth, health care, education, and other indices.

"Madhya Pradesh came into existence in 1956 and since then, except for five-six years, Congress ruled the state till 2003, but the state remained BIMARU during their regime,” Shah said.

“However, the BJP government has successfully brought the state out of the BIMARU tag and put it on the path of development by implementing various welfare schemes,” he said.

The senior BJP leader demanded that the opposition Congress give its report card of ruling the state for nearly 53 years.

Shah also gave figures to prove that Madhya Pradesh is now counted among developed states in the country and congratulated CM Chouhan for this achievement.

During the Congress regime, the state was lagging on all fronts, including power, water and roads, but the BJP government made a tremendous turnaround in all these spheres, he added.

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