The Bharatiya Janata Party's Anuppur district unit chief in Madhya Pradesh, who had vowed in 2017 not to wear footwear till the party forms a government in the state, started wearing it again on Saturday, days after the saffron party registered a resounding victory in the assembly polls.
The BJP's Anuppur district president Ramdas Puri started wearing shoes again after a gap of six years.
He did so in the presence of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Chouhan said that Puri stopped wearing footwear in 2017 and decided that till the BJP comes to power in the state, he will not wear it.
The BJP failed to form a government after the 2018 assembly elections. But even after the party came back to power in 2020 (after the Kamal Nath-led Congress government collapsed), Puri did not start wearing shoes, Chouhan said in a video posted on his official X account.
"Puri ji is a hardworking and dedicated party worker, who had given up wearing shoes and slippers since 2017. For six years, he remained barefoot in every season -- summer, winter or rain. His resolution has been fulfilled. We all requested that now the resolution has been fulfilled and you should start wearing shoes," he said.
In the last month's assembly elections, the BJP registered a landslide victory by bagging 163 of the 230 assembly seats, and retained power in the central state.
The opposition Congress was relegated to a distant second spot as it could win 66 assembly segments, while one seat was clinched by the Bharat Adivasi Party.
