Red signal to Jogi Hindutva

The nine, week-long yatras are to start on July 20, and originally were supposed to begin from temples or shrines as well as culminate at a temple. However, Sonia reportedly told Jogi to revise the programme and change his soft-Hindutva route at a meeting in Delhi on Tuesday. He was told to instead follow the guidelines evolved at the party’s Chintan Shivir in Shimla recently.

Immediately on his return, the CM asked the PCC to work out a new travel schedule for the Vikas Yatras. Admits a senior party minister: ‘‘We should not copy the BJP on everything when we know it will not work in our favour at the time of the elections.’’ In fact, Jogi’s rivals within the party are believed to have first expressed their apprehensions to senior central leaders over his flirtations with soft-Hindutva.

Apart from the yatras, the CM recently organised a Virat Ram Katha, hosted Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand at his residence and announced a Rs 2-crore temple dedicated to Lord Ram’s mother Kaushalya near Aarang.

The Vikas Yatra plan, in fact, bore a striking resemblance to the BJP’s recent 18-day Parivartan Yatra in the state. The party took out all its rallies in the course of that yatra from religious places.

The Vikas Yatras are to be headed by a minister each, and involve MPs and PCC leaders. AICC general secretary Vilasrao Deshmukh besides two former chief ministers Shyama Charan Shukla and Moti Lal Vora have also been invited to join the yatras.

The Chief Minister himself will join the yatra at some areas, travelling by road. The move may be meant to counter the Opposition criticism over his injudicious use of the state helicopter.