BJP MP’s remarks on pregnant woman’s demand for motorable road to village in M.P. stir row

Madhya Pradesh BJP MP Rajesh Mishra has courted controversy after accusing a pregnant woman from his constituency, who demanded a motorable road to her village in Sidhi district, of seeking social media fame, while also offering to make arrangements for her delivery.

Earlier this week, Leela Sahu, a Bagheli content creator from Khaddi Khurd village, had shared a video on social media featuring herself and seven other pregnant women, highlighting their demand for a road connecting their village to a town 10 km away, which they said has the closest medical facility.

Ms. Sahu, who has over 11 lakh subscribers on YouTube and four lakh followers on Facebook, has since shared multiple videos showing the village’s muddy road conditions, vehicles stuck in the mud, and locals locals demanding improvements. In one of her videos, Ms. Sahu, who claimed she was nine months pregnant, addressed the MP, asking him who would be held responsible if any of the pregnant women encountered difficulties due to the village’s poor road conditions.

Ms. Sahu claimed that after she raised the issue through her videos last year, seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention, Mr. Mishra assured her that the road would be built within a year. However, she alleged that despite this promise, no progress has been made on the project. “If you did not have the courage to build the road, then why did you make the promise? We could have approached bigger leaders like Mr. Modi and [Union Road Transport Minister] Nitin Gadkari,” she said in a video.

Mr. Mishra, however, said using pregnancy as a means to raise demands wasn’t right. “There must have been many women in that village who have undergone deliveries and so many children have been born but has any incident happened till now? There is [Chief Minister] Mohan Yadav’s government in M.P. If needed we can even get a patient airlifted by helicopter or airplane,” he told reporters on Friday.

“We have ambulances and other facilities. We have ASHA workers. We will make arrangements for the delivery. Come and get admitted to a hospital if there is a problem. Each delivery has an expected date. We will get them picked up a week before that. Our government gives all facilities, including food and water. This is why I feel it’s not right to put this [pregnancy] in front to talk about such things. If someone wants to get famous on social media, then you can do anything for it. This thing will happen in every village then,” he said.

On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh’s Public Works Department Minister Rakesh Singh had stated that while many people make demands through social media, it’s not feasible for the department to start construction work immediately.

“If someone puts a post on social media, do you think that the PWD has enough budget that we reach there with a dumper to make the road? This is not possible,” Mr. Singh had said.

‘Shameful comments’

State Congress president Jitu Patwari termed Mr. Mishra’s remarks “shameful and filled with arrogance”. “The woman is being asked her delivery date so that she can be taken to hospital from her house, but the road was not built,” he said in a video statement.