New Delhi/Kedarnath (Uttarakhand): With the crucial Gujarat and Himachal elections fast approaching, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday played the religion card and accused the Congress of not allowing him to rebuild the Kedarnath shrine after the 2013 deluge, when he was chief minister of Gujarat. Mr Modi, who was at the Kedarnath shrine a day after Diwali, laid the foundation stones of five reconstruction projects.

Calling himself a son of Lord Shiva, the Prime Minister felt perhaps it was Lord Shiva’s wish that the work be carried out by “Baba’s son”.

Making a pitch for the 2019 general election, Mr Modi said: “Blessings from Kedarnath will lead us to fulfil the aspirations of every Indian citizen in 2022.”

Hitting out at the PM, Congress spokesman R.P.N. Singh said: “We welcome Mr Modi visiting Baba Kedarnath but whenever elections come he sometimes remembers mother Ganga, or at times Baba calls him!” He added that the condition of “mother Ganga” was there for all to see.

Recalling the Congress-led UPA government’s move to block his efforts in 2013, the PM said the then Congress chief minister of Uttarakhand, Vijay Bahuguna, had agreed but was forced to retreat after the objections of the Congress high command. “I had expressed my desire to carry out reconstruction work at Kedarnath to the then chief minister, who agreed in principle,” Mr Modi said.

The PM, who was then chief minister of Gujarat, had immediately shared the news with the media, which was swiftly picked up by the TV channels.

With the 2014 general election approaching, the Congress-led UPA was in no mood to give Mr Modi any advantage, and it put pressure on the chief minister to refuse any help from the Gujarat government. “In my excitement I shared the news with the media, and within an hour TV channels flashed it, causing a storm in New Delhi,” Mr Modi said, adding: “They (UPA government) viewed this with a kind of alarm as they thought the Gujarat CM will now reach Kedarnath, and mounted pressure on the then state government not to agree to my request.” Incidentally, the then Uttarakhand CM, Vijay Bahuguna, switched sides to the BJP before the last Assembly polls in the hill state.

Trying to make the issue emotive, Mr Modi said: “I went back disappointed. But perhaps Baba (Lord Shiva) had decided the responsibility of doing reconstruction work at Kedarnath should be assigned to no one else but to Baba’s son,” he said.

The Congress reacted strongly, and claimed that the inauguration done by the PM was for a project that had already been completed by the earlier Harish Rawat government. The PM, who had visited the shrine in May this year, laid the foundation stones of five major reconstruction projects at Kedarpuri. These include improved facilities for devotees, construction of retaining walls and ghats at Mandakini and Saraswati rivers, an approach road to the shrine and reconstructing Adi Guru Shankaracharya’s tomb which was devastated in 2013. The PM said the projects were ambitious and expensive, but pledged there will be no dearth of funds.

The Prime Minister said he would invite the corporate sector to join hands to develop a grander Kedarnath. Asking people to make Uttarakhand a favourite tourist destination, he said the state should aspire to become an Organic State by 2022, when India marks 75 years of independence.

“Blessings from Kedarnath will lead us to fulfil the aspirations of every Indian citizen in 2022,” he said, and added: “Our endeavour is to harness the youthful vigour and water of the mountain state for its development.”

Mr Modi also got nostalgic remembering his days in Garurchatti, near Kedarnath, before he entered politics. “Some acquaintances I met today reminded me of my time spent in Garurchatti. They were important moments of my life. I wanted to settle down permanently in this soil and spend all my life at Baba’s feet. But Baba perhaps willed it differently.

“He perhaps did not want me to spend all my life at the feet of just one Baba and sent me out to serve the 125 crore people of the country as their service is the true service of God,” he said.