MP: Congress, BJP trade barbs over CM Yadav's proposed foreign visit

Bhopal (The Uttam Hindu): The Opposition Congress and ruling BJP exchanged barbs on Saturday over Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's proposed visit to Britain and Germany between November 24 and 29, officials said. In his first foreign tour as Chief Minister, Mohan Yadav will be visiting Britain's London, Cambridge, and Birmingham, and Germany's Munich and Stuttgart. This visit is the part of Global Investors' Summit (GIS) in 2025.

An official said the tour was being finalised, and the Chief Minister's visit will help in branding Madhya Pradesh and attracting investments for the GIS to be held in the state capital Bhopal in February next year. During his tour, CM Yadav will also go to the British Parliament and meet parliamentarians. The Chief Minister will visit the Battersea Power Plant and interact with friends of Madhya Pradesh, according to an official statement issued by his office. Reacting to CM's foreign visit, state Congress President Jitu Patwari said on Saturday that Mohan Yadav has adopted former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan's footsteps for visiting foreign countries.

He also questioned CM Yadav-led Madhya Pradesh government's initiative for organising Regional Industrial Conclave (RIC). Patwari said public money is being invested by the state government for roadshows and business meetings, but the development is not visible on the ground. "A huge public money is being invested in the name of Regional Industrial Conclave, but the reality is quite different. Now CM Yadav too would lead a roadshow in foreign countries like his predecessor Shivraj Singh Chouhan did during his regime," he added.

The Madhya Pradesh BJP unit criticised Patwari for his remarks on CM Yadav's foreign visit, saying the back-to-back defeat in the elections and the internal rift have frustrated him in a way that he has lost his senses. BJP also described Patwari's remark as a "conspiracy" to defame ‍Madhya Pradesh. "During Kamal Nath-led Congress government, the State Secretariat (Vallabh Bhawan) had become into a den of brokerage and illegal money recovered by the party from his associates was evident of it," it said in a statement issued to the media.