PM to inaugurate 'Mahakal Lok', Ujjain decked up

Bhopal: In an attempt to promote the Hindutva agenda ahead of next's year Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Mahakal Lok project in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, redeveloped in the line of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor.

During the dedication ceremony of the Mahakal Lok on October 11, as many as 25,000 temples of the state will be decorated like Diwali celebrations. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has instructed all the collectors to ensure arrangements for lighting earthen lamps and organising religious Bhajan-Kirtans on the temples' premises situated in their respective districts.

The Mahakaleshwar temple located in the holy city of Ujjain, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas established in the country, is being redeveloped by the state government as a special corridor under the temple's expansion project costing Rs 856 crore, PM Modi will inaugurate its first phase. The PM will also address a huge religious gathering in the city after dedicating the Mahakal Lok to devotees and tourists.

Just ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, which concluded early this year, Modi had inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath corridor and his party had registered successive victories breaking the 40 years record in the state.

This will be the second visit of PM to Madhya Pradesh in a month, before which he toured the state for launching the Cheetah project in Kuno Palpur National Park on his birthday, September 17.

"This is a landmark occasion for Madhya Pradesh Modi Ji is going to dedicate Mahakal Lok to devotees and tourists from all over the world. Makaleshwar dominates the life of people even in the midst of the modern preoccupation and provides an unbreakable link with Sanatan Dharma", Narottam Mishra, Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh told Millennium Post.

The state government has made arrangements with setting up the screens for the live telecast of the inaugural function in all the main temples of Madhya Pradesh. CM Chouhan has urged people to light the earthen lamp at home on this occasion. Infrastructures have been built with Shiv Leelas focusing on mythology, seeing which people will have a vision of Shiva Lok on Earth.

"It is an effort to divert public attention from the burning issues like unemployment, inflation, hike in GST rates on essential goods, privatisation and corruption", Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Govind Singh told Millennium Post.

"Ahead of the elections the BJP always provokes religious sentiments of the people, it is trying to disorient people from the failure of its state and central governments in the name of religion", Singh said.

Keeping in mind the 2018 Assembly elections debacle, the party has been working on the Uttar Pradesh model of Hindutva after toppling the Congress government in 2020. It is considered that the Mahakal Lok project is a big part of the saffron party's election strategy like the Kashi corridor to polarise the Hindu votes for the upcoming 2023 Assembly polls.