Narsinghpur, Nov 20 (IANS) Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha on Thursday laid the foundation stone for a new building of Mushran Bhavan in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district.

The upcoming structure will also accommodate the district Congress office.

The bhoomi-pujan ceremony coincided with the 93rd birth anniversary of former Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Ajay Narayan Mushran, who passed away in 2004 after a prolonged illness.

Several senior Congress leaders, including PCC chief Jitu Patwari, state in-charge Harish Choudhary, Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar, and former Union Minister Arun Yadav, attended the event.

The original Mushran Bhavan was established in 1973 by Ajay Narayan Mushran’s father, Pt. Shyam Sundar Narayan Mushran, after he was conferred the Krishi Ratna award by the Government of India.

The award money was used to set up a trust named after Mahatma Gandhi, with the building registered under the trust subsequently christened Mushran Bhavan.

With the old structure now in disrepair, plans have been drawn up for a new multi-storey facility. Tankha, who is Ajay Narayan Mushran’s son-in-law and head of the trust, shared photographs of the ceremony, captioned: “Mahatma Gandhi Trust: District Congress office space and the literature on great leaders.”

The Mushran family once held a dominant position in Narsinghpur politics, with both Shyam Sundar Mushran and Ajay Narayan Mushran representing the Congress until 2004. The district, part of the Mahakaushal region, was long considered a Congress stronghold.

However, over the past two decades, BJP leader Prahlad Singh Patel—currently a minister in Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s cabinet—has consolidated his influence in the area.

The new Mushran Bhavan project is being viewed as an attempt to revive Congress’s presence in Narsinghpur, harking back to the political era shaped by the Mushran family.

–IANS

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