Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday laid the foundation stone for a Hanuman corridor in Chhindwara, in a move seen as a bid to counter domination of the Congress in the district, which is home to former chief minister Kamal Nath, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
Speaking on the occasion, Chouhan said that Shri Hanuman Lok will come up on a 26-acre plot at Jam Sanwali temple at an estimated cost of ₹314 crore. It is one of the 11 Hindu religious corridors being developed by the Madhya Pradesh government, he added.
“Shri Hanuman Lok will become the centre of India’s spiritual and cultural consciousness. It is going to be built at Jam Sanwali in Chhindwara with the blessings of Lord Ram,” Chouhan said. “I have full faith that just like Mahakal Lok (in Ujjain), Hanuman Lok will also emerge as the centre of faith for crores of devotees.”
The chief minister also announced that Chhindwara’s three tehsils — Pandhurna, Saunsar and Nandanwadi — will be merged to carve a new district, to be named Pandhurna.
The decisions, ahead of the assembly polls scheduled for later this year, are seen as an attempt to counter state Congress chief Kamal Nath’s Hindutva approach. Nath, who claims to be a Hanuman devotee, has installed a 101-foot-tall statue of the deity at Simariya in Chhindwara — the Lok Sabha constituency that has been represented by the Congress leader or his family members since 1980, except losing the seat once to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1997.
{{/usCountry}}The decisions, ahead of the assembly polls scheduled for later this year, are seen as an attempt to counter state Congress chief Kamal Nath’s Hindutva approach. Nath, who claims to be a Hanuman devotee, has installed a 101-foot-tall statue of the deity at Simariya in Chhindwara — the Lok Sabha constituency that has been represented by the Congress leader or his family members since 1980, except losing the seat once to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1997.
{{/usCountry}}In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won all but Chhindwara seat in the state. The ruling party is eyeing to win all 29 seats in the next year’s parliamentary elections.
In an attempt to get early momentum in poll preparations, the BJP has already announced two candidates from Chhindwara — Nanabhau Mohad from Sausar and Prakash Uikey from Pandhurna — for the upcoming assembly elections.
According to a local folklore, Jam Sanwali temple’s priest Dhanraj Dubey said, it is believed that Lord Hanuman took rest at the site of the temple while on his way to get Sanjivani (life-saving herb) for Laxman. The temple attracts a large number of pilgrims from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
The opposition Congress, meanwhile, accused the BJP of using Hindu deities for their “political gain”.
“In 2016, Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced to give ₹22 crore for the development of the [Jam Sanwali] temple, but hardly any money came in. Now, he has laid the foundation stone. Local residents are wise enough to understand that the BJP is using deities for political gain,” Congress spokesperson Syed Jafar alleged.
The BJP hit back, alleging that instead of doing anything for residents of Chhindwara, Nath “created his own wealth”.
“The Chhindwara development model is limited to the urban areas only… People from different states come to Jam Sanwali temple, but Kamal Nath and incumbent Congress legislator from Sausar, Vijay Chaure, have hardly paid any attention to develop it,” Nanabhau Mohad, the BJP candidate from Sausar, alleged.