Bhopal:

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday slammed the Congress and said that the party had made Madhya Pradesh a ‘Bimaru Rajya’ and his government removed that stigma.

CM Chouhan made the remark while addressing a ‘Karyakarta Mahakumbh’, a mega congregation of BJP workers, at Jamboree Maidan in the state capital Bhopal on Monday.

“We did a lot of work in Madhya Pradesh. Remember that dark phase of Congress when Congress made Madhya Pradesh a ‘Bimaru Rajya’ (sick state). We have removed that stigma of Bimaru. During Congress rule, there used to be only 60,000 kilometers of broken and damaged roads in the state, today we have built five lakh kilometers of magnificent roads in the state,” CM Chouhan said.

The ‘BIMARU’ acronym has been used to refer to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, to imply they have lagged in terms of economic growth, healthcare and education.

“During Congress rule, electricity used to be available for two to three hours and there used to be only 2900 megawatt power generation. Today, the BJP government has increased the power generation in the state to 29000 megawatts. The irrigation facility was available on only 7500 hectares of land, but today the facility has been arranged for 47 lakh hectares of land,” he said.

Mr Chouhan further said that the double-engine government of the BJP has taken Madhya Pradesh forward rapidly.

“During Congress time the poor people were forced to suffer the curse of poverty but, I am proud to say that we have made 1.36 crore people rise above the poverty line. This miracle has happened under the leadership of PM Modi,” said MP CM.

Coming down on the 15-month rule of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government, the Chief Minister said, “Kamal Nath committed sin. PM Modi sent houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. But Nath committed the sin of returning 2,00,000 houses. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the PM sent money but Kamal Nath did not start the Jal Jeevan Mission. When we were back in power we worked to provide water to 67 lakh houses under the tap water scheme.”

“Congress did not send the list of beneficiaries of Prime Minister’s Samman Nidhi and farmers were deprived of money. When the BJP government returned, they sent a list of 80 lakh people to get the benefits of Kisan Samman Nidhi. Congress took measures to destroy and ruin the state but today they are satisfied to say that Madhya Pradesh is now moving forward rapidly,” he added.

Madhya Pradesh, which has 230 assembly seats, is scheduled to go for polls later this year. In the last assembly election in 2018, the Congress came to power and formed the government with senior leader Kamal Nath as the chief minister.

However, the BJP formed the government in 2020 after a coup by then Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia who, along with 22 MLAs joined the BJP.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)