Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh will resume his Vikas Yatra on Monday from Congress-held Arang Assembly seat in Raipur district.
Singh will address a series of meetings from his specially-designed Vikas Rath at Arang, Nawapara, Abhanpur, Boriyakala and Mana. He will unveil development works totalling Rs 808 crore on Monday in a bid to woo voters as the BJP eyes a third-consecutive Assembly polls victory.
The State goes for a 90-member State legislative Assembly polls by November. Political analysts say that a massive change in State’s political arena has been recorded since the Yatra was rolled out in May. The main Opposition Congress which was looking stronger and formidable in the State till May, has now been weakened as the State unit chief Nandkumar Patel, influential tribal leader Mahendra Karma and nine-time Congress MP and former union minister VC Shukla were killed in the May 25 ambush which had even temporarily shaken up the saffron regime in the State too.
Experts say that even a major split in the State unit of the Congress is on the cards by the next month as former chief minister Ajit Jogi has gone offensive in recent weeks against several party colleagues who are strongly backed by high-command.
Raman Singh, who is heading the BJP Government since 2003, had actually began his 6,000 km plus Vikas Yatra on May 6 from Maoist hotbed Dantewada and it was scheduled to conclude on June 20, but the journey was suspended midway on May 25 after top State Congress leaders were killed in a deadly ambush by Maoists in Sukma district under restive Bastar region.
The Yatra, which is considered a key indicator to gauge the mood of the voters ahead of the polls, was rescheduled to resume on August 17, but it was again put off as BJP's veteran and lok Sabha MP, Dilip Singh Judeo, died at the age of 64 on August 14 and the State declared a three-day State mourning that ended on Sunday.
Raman claims that the Vikas Yatra is entirely a Government drive rather than his party's political drive, but the BJP sources say that the entire party's machinery are involved in making the yatra a grand success. Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj will join in Vikas Yatra on Monday at Arang. The yatra will conclude on September 7 in Ambikapur, headquarters of the State's northern poverty-hit tribal dominated Surguja district.