PM Modi, top BJP leaders observe fast

NEW DELHI: Top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his ministerial colleagues and party MPs and office-bearers, observed a fast on Thursday to protest the washout of the second phase of Parliament's Budget Session, for which they have blamed the Congress.

While many, including Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh, kept to their work while fasting, several ministers, among them Prakash Javadekar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal, travelled to different parts of the country to sit on fast and attack the main opposition party.

BJP president Amit Shah joined his party colleagues in Karnataka to protest against the Congress's "disruptions" of Parliament.

"The Congress knew very well that they could not debate in any of the Houses so they did not let the Parliament function. The BJP was left with no choice but to go to the people as it is the biggest forum for us," Amit Shah said at a public meeting in the state, which goes to polls month.

The main opposition party, he claimed, does not believe in democracy and it has held democracy "hostage" in its own household. It does not have internal party democracy and cannot save democracy in the country, he said.

The BJP's Lok Sabha members mostly sat on a protest fast in their constituencies while most of the Rajya Sabha members did so in their states.

In his interaction with party leaders earlier, PM Modi had asked them to "expose" opposition parties which, he said, had "throttled" democracy by stalling Parliament proceedings during the Budget Session.

Health minister JP Nadda travelled to Modi's constituency Varanasi, while law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and minister of state for rural development minister Ram Kripal Yadav were in Patna and Digha in Bihar respectively to sit on a fast.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was in Chennai while Prakash Javadekar was in Bengaluru.

Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh was in Motihari in Bihar while steel minister Birender Singh was in Jind. Commerce minister Suresh Prabhu was in Delhi.

BJP general secretaries Bhupender Yadav, Anil Jian and Arun Singh, were in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha respectively.