Thursday, Apr 25, 2024 | Last Update : 09:58 PM IST
PM Modi in Ranchi, Amit Shah in Rohtak for Friday yoga
The PM will join the yoga session along with 18,000 people, including CM Raghubar Das.
New Delhi: With its eyes on the forthcoming Assembly polls, the BJP high command has zeroed in on two crucial states to celebrate International Yoga Day on Friday. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Jharkhand, Union home minister Amit Shah will be in Rohtak, Haryana. The grand events in the states are being viewed as the “unofficial” launch of the BJP’s election campaign there.
The Prime Minister will join the yoga session along with 18,000 people, including chief minister Raghubar Das, in Ranchi. The BJP chief will be flanked by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Rohtak.
After a stellar performance by the BJP in both states in the recent Lok Sabha polls, where it won 11 of 14 seats in Jharkhand and all 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana, the local units are understood to have been told to aim to win a two-thirds majority in the Assemblies. The BJP chief is learnt to have asked the Haryana unit to set a target of “Abki bar 75 paar” in the 90-member House, while the Jharkhand unit has tasked with winning 65 of the 81 seats in the Jharkhand Assembly.
A victory in these two state Assemblies, where the incumbent governments are BJP-run, is seen as crucial as it would further boost the morale of party workers and maintain the Narendra Modi government’s grip on them.
Interestingly, Mr Shah has chosen Rohtak, the erstwhile stronghold of the Hooda dynasty, to start the campaign. The Hooda dynasty was decimated in the Lok Sabha polls, with former Haryana CM Bhopinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Hooda, a three-time MP, routed decisively in Sonepat and Rohtak respectively.
Sources said the venue has been selected to send across a clear message to Haryana’s dynasts through his presence in the Yoga Day celebrations.
Other senior ministers from the Narendra Modi team of ministers, the chief ministers of BJP-run states and party unit chiefs from various states, from the city to the block level, will participate in the events held across various districts of the country. Similar events will also be held across the globe as part of the government’s efforts to celebrate International Yoga Day for the past five years on June 21, to raise global awareness about the benefits of the ancient Indian practice.
The UN General Assembly had in December 2014 declared June 21 as “International Day of Yoga” months after Prime Minister Modi had first proposed the idea.
