New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced to hold nationwide commemoration programmes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
An all-party condolence meeting has been organised at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in the national capital on Monday afternoon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present at the meeting, for which invites have been sent to leaders of all major political parties. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD chief Tejaswi Yadav, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, and other senior leaders have been invited to the condolence meeting.
Sources in the BJP said senior leaders from various political parties requested the BJP top leadership to organise a joint commemoration programme of the former Prime Minister.
On August 23, a meeting will be held in Lucknow where Home Minister Rajnath Singh, along with Vajpayee's family members and other state leaders, will commemorate the Bharat Ratna. Similar condolence meetings will be organised in various state capitals, said sources. The dates will be declared by the state units.
"We have asked our party offices across the country to organise programmes at the state, district and panchayat levels to commemorate Vajpayee's life and his contributions to the Indian politics. All state capitals will hold all-party meeting. Programmes are being prepared for immersion of the late PM's ashes in nearly 100 cities," BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav told mediapersons on Saturday at the party headquarters.
He added that they have been getting requests from municipal corporations and panchayats for passing resolutions in Vajpayee's memory, for which party has provided them with the necessary material.
BJP has also planned to immerse his ashes in 100 rivers. On Sunday, the programme commenced from Haridwar, where Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP chief Amit Shah were present. The BJP had taken out full-page ads in newspapers to announce the event, which took place in the afternoon.
The ashes were immersed at
Har ki Paudi - a ghat dedicated to Lord Shiva and a landmark
in the temple town - by the former Prime Minister's
foster daughter Namita Bhattacharya, and granddaughter Niharika.
On Thursday, the ashes will be immersed in the Gomti in Lucknow as Vajpayee represented Lucknow in parliament for years.
All these programmes will be organised in the next 15 days.