Won't participate in 'Jan Ashirward Yatra' if invited now: BJP leader Uma Bharti
Bhopal (PTI): Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Uma Bharti on Monday expressed displeasure over not being invited for the party's 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' launched in Madhya Pradesh, where the assembly polls are due this year-end.
In a series of posts on her social media account X, former MP chief minister Bharti said she will not participate in programmes under the yatra, even if she is invited now.
The BJP leader, however, also said that if MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asks her to campaign for an election, she can do it.
BJP president JP Nadda on Sunday flagged off the party's Jan Ashirwad Yatra from Chitrakoot.
The BJP is taking out the yatras from five different places in Madhya Pradesh, which will culminate on September 25 in state capital Bhopal with a 'Karyakarta Mahakumbh'.
"It is true that I did not receive an invitation for the start of Jan Ashirwad Yatra, but it doesn't make me less or more. Now even if I am invited, I will not go anywhere. Neither at the beginning nor at the closing ceremony on September 25," Bharti said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Bharti said there is an "unbreakable" and strong bond of respect between her and MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
"Whenever and wherever Shivraj ji asks me to campaign for election, I can campaign by obeying and respecting him," the former MP CM said.
Bharti further said she is among those people whose "blood and sweat" have created the BJP and she will never harm the party.
She also shared her experience of treatment in government hospitals compared to private medical facilities and said, "We all leaders, MLAs, MPs, ministers, chief ministers and all officials should get treatment done in government hospitals and send children to study in government schools. Only then these systems can be improved."
She also termed the staying of leaders in five-star hotels as a wasteful expenditure.
Bharti earlier ran a campaign demanding a stringent liquor policy in Madhya Pradesh.
During the course of Jan Ashirwad Yatras, the BJP will reach out to the people through large public meetings and highlight welfare schemes of the Centre and the state and their achievements.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address a meeting of BJP workers to mark the culmination of these five mass-contact programmes on September 25 in Bhopal, party leaders said.
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3 held, hunt on for 4 accomplices after they kidnap, assault and urinate on man in Bhopal
Bhopal (PTI): Police have registered a case against seven persons and arrested three of them for allegedly kidnapping, assaulting and urinating on a 22-year-old man in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, officials said on Thursday.
The incident occurred during the intervening night of April 26 and 27 in an area located under the Hanumanganj police station limits, an official said.
One of the accused urinated on the face of the victim and captured a video of the act, which was later circulated on social media to humiliate him, he said.
"A complaint in this connection was lodged by Jaswant Markam (22), a resident of Kamla Nagar, based on which a case was registered against seven persons under sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and police have arrested three of them, including one Prem Thapa," Bhopal Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said.
Three police teams have been formed and the remaining suspects will be apprehended soon, he said.
During the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, Markam was at the local bus stand with a friend when around 4 am, the accused took him away on the pretext of discussing something with him. They asked him about his neighbour and friend Aniket. When he refused to provide any information, they started assaulting him, the police said.
The accused then took him to a forest in Karond area, where he was stripped and severely thrashed, they said.
When the man began to lose consciousness, one of the accused urinated on his face and made a video of the act, which was circulated on social media to humiliate him and spread terror, according to the police.
The accused called Markam's friend around 5 am to inform him about his condition. The victim was subsequently admitted to a hospital, the officials said, adding that the viral video was also being investigated.
Responding to a query, Hanumanganj police station in-charge Awdhesh Bhadoria said if the victim was found to be from the tribal community, then relevant sections will be invoked against the accused.
At present, the police are probing the incident and search is on to arrest the remaining accused, he added.
In 2023, a man had urinated on a tribal youth in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh. A video of the incident had gone viral on social media platforms and created a controversy.
