On Thursday (June 22), Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat to launch the six-day Veerangana Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra, an initiative of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party State government to honour the legacy of 16th century Gondwana kingdom Queen Durgavati.
Under this, five yatras will originate from as many places and traverse through mostly tribal-dominated belts of the State, before culminating in Shahdol district of Eastern Madhya Pradesh on June 27 at the Veerangana Rani Durgavati Balidan Diwas event, which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Apart from Mr. Shah in Balaghat, elected representatives from the ruling party will flag off the yatras at other origin points. Betul MP D.D. Uikey will flag off the yatra from neighbouring Chhindwara, which has a significant tribal population and is also the stronghold of State Congress president and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Another key tribal face in the State BJP, Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah, will launch the yatra from Damoh district.
In Sidhi, first-time BJP Lok Sabha MP, Himadri Singh — who represents the Shahdol seat and comes from a political family which has roots in the Congress — will start the yatra from Dhauhani.
Meanwhile, the fifth yatra will be launched from Kalinjar Fort in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district, the birthplace of the Queen whose martyrdom day falls on June 24. The sitting and former Rajya Sabha MPs, Sumer Singh Solanki and Sampatiya Uikey, respectively, will start the yatras.
“Rani Durgavati, counted among the brave women in Indian history, was a brave, fearless and very courageous warrior and fought for freedom against the Mughals till her last breath. Programmes are organised for a week in memory of their sacrifice. In the same series, programmes based on her bravery and valour will be held in the 6-day Gaurav Yatra,” said a government statement.
Renaming places
The route of the yatra covers tribal belts of the Vindhya and Mahakoshal regions where the Queen is revered. Tribals constitute 21% of the population of Madhya Pradesh and 47 out of the 230 Assembly seats are reserved for them. Out of these 47 seats, the BJP was reduced to 18 in 2018, a sharp decline from the 37 it won in the 2013 election.
While the Congress, that won 31 seats in the last election, enjoyed a short stint in power, Mr. Chouhan, since his return to the helm in 2020, has made continuous efforts to woo the tribal population through both symbolism — such as renaming of places after tribal icons such as Tantya Mama and Rani Kamlapati — and measures such as notifying the rules of PESA (Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act) — that gives a wide range of powers to gram sabhas — in the tribal-dominated parts of the State.
