Galaxy of VIPs turns venue into fort
LUCKNOW: In eastern UP, they say that it’s not Yogi Adityanath who needs the BJP to win elections, but it is the BJP which needs him. The saying came alive in Lucknow on Sunday when the party put its might behind making Yogi’s coronation an event not to be forgotten. It was a splash of saffron up to the sprawling Smriti Upvan, which had a huge and surging crowd of over one lakh ranting pro-Modi and pro-Yogi slogans.
As thousands of BJP supporters and party workers started arriving, the venue was turned into a fort with four crossings and 12 turnings around it barricaded. Heavy contingents of CISF, BSF and CMPF were deployed around the venue owing to the presence of a galaxy of VVIPs, including PM Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, 10 CMs of the BJP, its allies and a battery of senior Cabinet ministers.
There were rows of over 10,000 vehicles parked all along the roads leading to Smriti Upvan in the run up to the mega BJP show. In a welcome departure from tradition being followed for the last 15 years wherein political adversaries (SP-BSP) did not attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new CM, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav along with his father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav attended the event.
Besides, the BJP stalwarts and veteran members of party’s margdarshak mandal—LK Advani and Dr MM Joshi—had also made their presence registered, reviving the memories late 80s. PM Modi and new CM Yogi waved to the surging crowd soon on climbing the stage to ‘har-har Modi..ghar ghar yogi’ slogans. Yogi’s enthronement sends out a loud message that the BJP was in no mood to dilute its Hindutva agenda at least in the near future.