Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday released the Madhya Pradesh government's 'report card' from 2003-2023 and said the Bharatiya Janata Party government in these years successfully removed the BIMARU (laggard) category tag from the state, which, according to him, was a legacy of the Congress regime.
He said the people of the state took a historic decision in 2003 by removing the government of "Mr Bantadhar", apparently referring to senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh.
The BJP government laid the foundation of making the state developed and self-reliant in the last 20 years, he said.
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.
He also asked the opposition Congress to give a report card of its nearly five-decade rule in the state.
The assembly elections in MP are due this year-end.
Shah also expressed confidence that the BJP will win all 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the general elections due next year.
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, the 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.
Shah said Madhya Pradesh is at the top in the country with a contribution of 45 per cent in wheat exports, it has distributed more than 3.62 crore Ayushman cards (of government health scheme) to remain on the first position (in that field) in the country, and the quality of rural roads developed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in MP is the best in the country.
Madhya Pradesh has approved cases worth Rs 4,300 crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund Scheme to attain first position in the country, the state is at the second place in constructing houses in rural areas under the PM Awas Yojna (PMAY), and its Indore city has maintained first position since the last six years in the Swachhta (cleanliness) scheme, he said.
Highlighting the achievements under various welfare schemes, Shah said in the last five years, 1.36 crore people have come out of poverty in the state, the per capita income has increased from Rs 12,000 in 2003 to Rs 1.40 lakh at present, and more than 44 lakh poor families have got pucca houses under the PMAY in both urban and rural areas.
Targeting the opposition Congress, Shah said during the regime of “Mr Bantadhar,” the state was lagging behind in every sphere, especially power water and roads.
"Once known as a Bantadhar state, Madhya Pradesh is now touching new heights of development. In the last 20 years, the BJP government has established new dimensions in power, water, roads and education sectors,” Shah said.
He also highlighted figures of development in road, industry and health sectors among others to prove that Madhya Pradesh has become a developed state in the last 20 years.
Shah said in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, people of the state gave 27 out of the total 29 seats to the BJP while in 2019, they gave 28 out of 29 to his party.
“I firmly believe that in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the people of the state will give this remaining one seat also to the BJP,” Shah said.
In 2019, the Congress bagged only Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat in the state, which was won by senior party leader Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath.
Shah said, “The Congress which made the state BIMARU in its nearly 53 years of rule is now claiming to make it a developed one."
"If the Congress has courage, then it should come out with its report card of 50 years of ruling the state. We have started a new tradition of giving accountability in the country wherever we are in power,” the senior BJP leader said.
In the 15 months of Congress rule in the state (between December 2018 and March 2020), the Kamal Nath government either stopped all poor welfare schemes or paralysed them, Shah said.
“I wanted to tell Congress leaders that they should not mislead people by talking of irrelevant things. The Congress should give the report card of its development. The pair of Mr Bantadhar and Nath should give the report card of Congress's 53 years of rule,” he added.
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