LS polls: Vidisha's huge tourism potential remains untapped, say historians

Vidisha's links with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, late BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj and Madhya Pradesh ex-chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan may have brought it under the spotlight from time to time, but the town has the potential to create its identity as a tourist destination, according to historians.

Flanked by world heritage sites like Sanchi and Bhim Baithika, which are a part of the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat, this town is home to many historically important sites, including the 10th-century Bija Mandal.

"It is a fact that a large number of tourists visit Sanchi, a renowned Buddhist site. But very few among them visit the city of Vidisha which is hardly 10 km from the world heritage site despite having historically and archaeologically important places like Bija Mandal," historian Govind Deolia told PTI.

He claimed that the "design of the new Parliament building in Central Vista (in New Delhi) is inspired by the Bija Mandal-Vijaya Mandir".

Vidisha is also surrounded by historical places like the Udaygiri caves having the world's oldest Ganesh idol and the Heliodorus Pillar, which is among the few monuments of the Before-Christ era, Deolia said.

If Udaipur's Shiva temple and Gyaraspur are promoted well, it will create a lot of jobs in the tourism and allied sectors like hospitality, tours and travel, he said.

"Not just the new Parliament building, but the old one's design was also inspired by the 11th-century Chausath Yogini Mandir in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district," he claimed.

In this poll season, Vidisha is back in focus with the nomination of Chouhan, one of the most popular party leaders in the state. The seat had been represented by late BJP stalwarts like Vajpayee (1991) and Swaraj (2009 and 2014).

"It is unfortunate that architects do not mention where they got the idea of designing the structure (Parliament building) from... It happened with the earlier Parliament building as well as the new one constructed under the Central Vista project," Deolia said.

However, Vidisha features in an old map of India displayed in the new Parliament building mentioning three important cities, including Varanasi and Maheshwar, from the spiritual and historical point of view.

Deolia said the people of Vidisha have also urged Chouhan to ensure that there is a mention of the Bija Mandal-Vijaya Mandir's design in the new Parliament building.

He rued that authorities have not promoted Vidisha as a tourist destination.

"Even Sanchi was not promoted by government agencies. It got prominence just because it is associated with Buddhism, which has an international recognition," he said.

Another historian Vijay Chaturvedi said the history of Vidisha has been rich since ancient times, there is a Heliodorus Pillar of 113 BC and there are historical caves of Udayagiri, but due to lack of promotion, tourists return from Sanchi.

"If the government develops the ancient sites here, then surely people from all over the world will be able to see this historical wealth and when tourism increases, employment will automatically get generated," he said.

Yet another historian Shiv Kumar Tiwari said Vidisha was the business centre of King Vikramaditya and it was also the place of work of Maharishi Patanjali throughout his life.

There is not much promotion of the historic city which houses numerous historical and archaeological important sites in it as well as its surroundings, he said.

If the government promotes it as a tourist circuit and the tourism development corporation provides facilities to the tourists, then certainly Vidisha can regain its old glory, he added.

Senior Congress leader and the party's nominee for Vidisha, Pratap Bhanu Sharma, accused Chouhan of not promoting Vidisha's tourism potential.

"It is a fact that Chouhan did not do anything for the promotion of tourism in Vidisha despite being the chief minister four times and a five-term MP," said Sharma, who has won from Vidisha twice in the past - in 1980 and 1984.

If Congress wins, it will promote Vidisha as a major tourist destination by creating tourism circuits of places situated in and around the historic city, he promised.

State BJP spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi dismissed Sharma's allegations as baseless.

Chouhan has done a lot to promote tourism not only in Vidisha but also in the entire state due to which, the Lok Sabha constituency has become a major centre of tourist attraction, he claimed.

Polling in Vidisha will be held in the third phase on May 7.

Vidisha Lok Sabha seat is spread across eight assembly segments of Vidisha, Raisen, Sehore and Dewas districts.

This constituency includes Bhojpur, Sanchi (SC), Silwani assembly segments of Raisen district, Vidisha and Basoda of Vidisha district, Budhni and Icchawar of Sehore district and Khategaon assembly segment of Dewas district.

Of the 19.38 lakh eligible voters in Vidisha, 10.04 lakh are men and 9.34 lakh women. In the 2019 elections, BJP's Ramakant Bhargava defeated Congress's Shailendra Rameshchandra Patel by 5 lakh votes.