Bhopal, Feb 11 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday received a warm welcome from the BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh as he arrived at tribal-dominated Jhabua to kick-start the party’s campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabaha election.

After reaching Jhabua through a special charter plane from Indore Airport, he entered the venue in a chariot decorated with flowers, waving hands in his own style to receive a warm welcome from a large gathering of people present there, including women and schoolchildren.

He was accompanied by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and State BJP President V.D. Sharma along with Union Minister and tribal leader Arjun Munda.

This is PM Modi’s first visit to Madhya Pradesh after the BJP won the Assembly election with absolute majority by winning 163 of 230 seats under his leadership. During the assembly election, the BJP had launched a slogan -- ‘MP Ke Mann Me Modi, Modi Ke Mann Me MP’.

Now that the general elections are scheduled to be held in the next few months, the BJP has already launched its slogan – ‘Ek Bar Fir Modi Sarkar’.

PM Modi kick-started the BJP's campaign for the Parliamentary poll while addressing a mega rally of the tribals in Jhabua, which is one of the six Lok Sabha seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) in Madhya Pradesh. Meanwhile, he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for Rs 7,550 crore development projects for the state.

Importantly, Madhya Pradesh has the highest – six Lok Sabha seats reserved for tribals. Through the Prime Minister's rally in Jhabua, the BJP is aimimg to focus on Scheduled Tribe seats in the Lok Sabha in three states (MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan).

Madhya Pradesh has 29 Lok Sabha seats, out of which, six - Betul, Dhar, Khargone, Mandla, Ratlam-Jhabua, and Shahdol are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.

In the past two general elections, the BJP has almost made a clean sweep by winning 27 and 28 of 29 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019 respectively in Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress could win only two and one Lok Sabha seat in these two elections. At present, veteran leader Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath is the only Lok Sabha MP from the Congress in Madhya Pradesh.