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Journalism of Courage
In the days ahead, the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP will celebrate the foundation day of Meghalaya in Lucknow with much fanfare. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and state BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary are likely to attend the event where people from Meghalaya and currently residing in Lucknow will be invited. Traditional cuisines from Meghalaya will be served and folk dance and songs of the Northeast state will be performed. BJP leaders and workers from Meghalaya are also expected to attend the event dressed in their traditional attire. An exhibition of handicrafts of Meghalaya will also be displayed at the venue.
Not only Meghalaya, in the weeks and months to come, the BJP will hold similar events in different parts of Uttar Pradesh to mark the foundation days of states like Tripura, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh.
This is a part of the BJP’s plan to reach out to people of different states living in Uttar Pradesh ahead of a string of Assembly elections and next year’s Lok Sabha polls in the country.
Notably, Meghalaya is heading for state polls this year.
To plan and organise these events, the UP unit of BJP has constituted a five-member committee comprising Kannauj MP Subrat Pathak, state vice-presidents Laxman Acharya and Dinesh Sharma and party state secretaries Subhash Yaduvansh and Devesh Kumar.
“The idea of organising such celebratory events with people of different states living here in UP is based on the concept of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us that concept. These programmes will give a feeling that we all are one India,” Yaduvansh told The Indian Express, adding “it is a completely non-political programme”.
According to the BJP leader, the party will hold such events for different states every year and a month’s time will be given to organise it to coincide with the foundation days of the states.
With Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur celebrating their foundation day on January 21, the UP unit of the BJP is planning to hold state-specific events on different days and in different places. While the event to celebrate Meghalaya will be held in Lucknow before February 5, the programme to mark Manipur Day will be organised in Vrindavan.
“The meeting to plan the event for the Meghalaya foundation day has been held and preparations have begun,” Yaduvansh said, adding BJP units in other states will also celebrate the foundation day of Uttar Pradesh.
Even though the BJP is calling it a “non-political programme”, but these events hold significance ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the country. UP is the most populated state in the country and people from the state migrate to different parts of the country for work. Likewise, people from other states reside in different parts of Uttar Pradesh.
“For example, people from Northeast states are working in hospitality, nursing and other sectors in Lucknow and other big cities of UP. There are clusters of houses in Varanasi and Prayagraj where people from West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh etc live,” said a BJP leader, adding that such events would help the party electorally in UP too.
“We have come to know that there are students in Lucknow University who hail from Meghalaya. The party is approaching them and others. They all will be invited to the programme,” said a leader of the BJP’s Lucknow unit.
