Eye On Madhya Pradesh Polls, PM Flags Off 5 Vande Bharat Trains In Bhopal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off two Vande Bharat trains -- Bhopal to Indore and Bhopal to Jabalpur -- from Bhopal's Rani Kamlapati railway station in Madhya Pradesh, where Assembly polls are due by the year-end. Three more Vande Bharat trains -- Madgaon (Goa)-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express, Dharwad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, and Hatia-Patna Vande Bharat Express -- were also virtually flagged off.

"These trains will improve connectivity in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Bihar, and Jharkhand," PM Modi said in a tweet on Monday.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, among others, were present on the occasion.

Earlier, after arriving at the Bhopal airport in the morning, Modi was scheduled to reach the Rani Kamalapati railway station by helicopter, but because of bad weather he left for the venue by road, state BJP media in-charge Ashish Agrawal said.

The PM will also virtually interact with 10 lakh booth-level BJP workers today.

Later in the day, the PM will interact with 3,000 party workers selected from across the country who have made effective contributions in empowering their booths under the party's "Mera Booth Sabse Majboot" campaign, state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma has said.

PM Modi's visit to Shahdol district has been put off in view of heavy rain warning, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said yesterday.

The prime minister has postponed his visit to the tribal-dominated district because of warning of heavy rains and keeping in mind inconvenience the downpour may cause to people coming to attend the event, the chief minister said in a statement.

A new date for his visit will be announced soon, he added.

The PM was scheduled to participate in the Veerangana Rani Durgavati Sacrifice Day program and the concluding event of Veerangana Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra in Shahdol city.

A proposed road show in Bhopal has also been cancelled because of the weather conditions, a party leader earlier said.