Jabalpur: Local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Rakesh Singh on Monday demanded renaming the over 150-year-old Jabalpur railway station after Rani Durgavati, a revered tribal queen of the erstwhile Gondwana kingdom. Singh, whose move is being seen as an attempt to woo tribals ahead of the year-end assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, said he has held talks with senior railway officials on the renaming issue and Will study the entire process before submitting a formal proposal. officers.
In 2021, the Habibganj railway station in the state capital Bhopal was named after Rani Kamlapati. A highly revered figure for the tribal Gond community, Rani Kamalapati was the last Hindu queen of the Bhopal region. The eight-district Jabalpur revenue division has several tribal-reserved seats, where the Congress did well in the 2018 assembly elections.
Singh said, “I had talked to the top officials of West Central Railway about renaming the Jabalpur station after Rani Durgavati.” The MP, who is also the Chief Whip of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, was talking to reporters after interacting with the General Manager of WCR and the Divisional Manager of Jabalpur Railway.
“Rani Durgavati was our ancestor. We should feel proud and privileged to be a part of the place where Rani Durgavati lived. Her governance and water management and valor was unparalleled. Keeping in mind the sentiments of the people of Jabalpur, Jabalpur Must be a station.” Then the name changed,” he said.
But it (renaming) is a lengthy exercise as the state government’s proposal goes through various ministries before the Center decides and approves it, the Jabalpur MP said. When contacted, Singh told PTI, “I am going to study the process of renaming railway stations before sending the proposal to the state government.”
The BJP leader also said that another proposal is being finalized to renovate the railway station with an investment of Rs 300 crore. Rani Durgavati died fighting the Mughals on June 24, 1564 near Narai Nala in Jabalpur district. Jabalpur (then known as Jubbulpur) station was opened in 1867 for rail traffic connecting Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). At that time, it was the interchange station between the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and the East Indian Railway.
The ruling BJP is making a desperate attempt to win back the tribals who wield considerable influence in several assembly seats. In 2018, the saffron party lost the MP Assembly elections to the Congress by a narrow margin. The Congress had then won 31 tribal-reserved seats, while the BJP had to be content with only 16 such seats.
After losing the election under Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the BJP sat in opposition for 15 months before returning to power following a rebellion by now Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia against the Congress leadership. The saffron party came to power in Madhya Pradesh by defeating the Congress in the 2003 assembly elections, and its performance was bolstered by a stellar performance in tribal-reserved seats, where it won 37 of the 41 constituencies earmarked for Scheduled Tribe candidates. . The BJP won 31 of the 47 ST-reserved seats in 2008 and retained power. Due to the delimitation exercise, the number of tribal-reserved seats in the state increased from 47 to 41.
In 2013, the saffron party repeated its 2008 performance on ST-reserved assembly seats. According to the 2011 Scheduled Tribe Population Census, the population of indigenous people was more than 15.3 million and constituted 21.08 percent of the total 72.6 million residents of Madhya Pradesh.
About 1.75 crore tribals, who now form 22 per cent of the population in MP, hold the key to power with 47 of the total 230 assembly seats reserved for them. Political observers said there are more than 50,000 tribal voters in 35 other assembly seats in the state.