Varanasi: BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday inaugurated the much-hyped ‘constituency office’ of local MP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and said that the city will be “developed as a model pilgrimage site of Hindus”.
“People from across the globe visit the city to take dip in the holy Ganga and offer prayer at Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The plans for development of this city are being prepared according to its spiritual character,” said Shah making it clear that being Modi’s constituency is a guarantee for development in itself for the city. About the funding of the development work in the city, Shah said it would be “enough to surprise anyone”. However, he did not disclose the volume of the budget.
Addressing a gathering at Ravindrapuri after inaugurating Modi’s local office on Wednesday, Shah cited Maninagar assembly constituency of Gujarat as an example and said that Modi represented this area during his 13 years regime as Gujarat chief minister. “In this period the area was developed into a model town without causing any problem to the local people. The locals were surprised to see the change when they were shown a film prepared before Modi was elected from Maninagar for the first time along with the film made after a gap of 13 years,” he said.
Praising Modi and his work further, Shah said, “Realising that direct communication with people of his constituency will not be possible, Modi has developed a method to remain in contact with people. The office opened here will act as a bridge between people and the PM. All care and caution has been taken while selecting the team to handle this well equipped office.”
About cleanliness in the city, he said that people of the city will have to equally cooperate in keeping the city clean and maintenance of the religious sites.
Earlier, Shah was accorded a warm welcome at dozens of places between Babatpur airport and Ravindrapuri Colony by party supporters and local residents. However, chaos was created when he reached Ravindrapuri to inaugurate the office as some party workers indulged in fighting with media photographers. The workers were trying to stop them outside. The religious rituals like Vastu and Ganesh Pujan had started there before the arrival of Shah.
Later, speaking at another function, Shah said that the Modi government had taken the issue of Ganga seriously and “purity and uninterrupted flow of the river will be maintained with people’s participation”.
“It is also important to see what went wrong with the Ganga cleaning project in the past so that the mistakes could not be repeated,” he said adding that keeping people away from the Ganga cleaning programme was the main reason behind its plight. Ganga cleaning project was purely a government programme. Restoring purity of the river is not possible without the involvement of the public,” said Shah.
He further said that the entire stretch of the Ganga — from Gangotri to Ganga Sagar — would be covered under a special plan to achieve the goal of the Ganga project. “The Central government is also committed to clean all rivers in the country,” he added.
Presence of Sakaldiha MLA hints new equations
Times News Network
Varanasi: BJP president Amit Shah did not indulge in political talks during his speech at the inaugural function of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s local office on Wednesday, but the presence of musclemen and politicians from other parties on the dais indicated towards a major change in political equations of east UP region before the next assembly elections.
Presence of Apna Dal MP from Mirzapur, Anupriya Patel and her mother Krishna Patel, did not surprise the participants as the BJP had already formed an alliance with their party before the parliamentary elections. But presence of muscleman MLA from Sakaldiha (Chandauli) Sushil Singh on a chair beside Shah surely indicated some new political equations.
Sushil, who is the nephew of jailed mafia don Brijesh Singh, had contested last assembly election as independent candidate from Sakaldiha after BSP supremo Mayawati had denied retaining his ticket.
Before parliamentary election Sushil had tried his best to get a BJP ticket from Chandauli. But, the former BJP president Rajnath Singh’s lobby did not allow him to enter the party. However, BJP has not given any statement regarding Sushil joining the party and continues to mention him as an independent candidate but his hoardings with BJP leaders, especially Shah, can be found at many places in Varanasi and Chandauli.
Apart from Sushil many other politicians who had shifted their loyalty from parties like the Congress were also seen garlanding Shah. By calling Virbhadra Nishad, one of the proposers of Modi during parliamentary election, the BJP hinted clearly that this time it was ready to maintain caste equations balanced to face challenge from the rivals like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. The MPs from Chandauli, Bhadohi, Ballia and Robertsganj were also present with other BJP leaders.