Dozens of BJP activists along with veteran leaders wholeheartedly welcomed former Garhwal MP Satpal Maharaj on his arrival to capital city after he joined the party in New Delhi, few days back.
The leaders claimed that the party’s strength has increased manifold after Maharaj joined the party and also claimed that Congress will be face clean sweep in the upcoming parliamentary elections. While addressing the gathering in a function held to mark his joining to the party at the State party office in Dehradun on Wednesday, Maharaj said that he has decided to join the BJP under the influence of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and termed him a man with a vision for the overall development of the country and state as well.
He said that he will continue its endeavour for redressing the grievances of all those villagers who are living in the mountainous parts of the state. After counting his achievements, Maharaj also cornered the Congress-led State Government for not taking effective steps for redressing the grievances of displaced villagers, who faced the brunt of natural calamities in the month of June, last year. He also said that Modi has vision and power to introduce effective steps for the overall development of the country. Sources revealed that few section of the party expressed their antipathy over the Maharaj’s speech that he forced the UPA to sanction more grants to Uttarakhand. He claimed that BJP-led NDA will be voted to power and the country will witness the development. Earlier, Maharaj was also welcomed at Jollygrant based airport. BJP State Chief Tirath Singh Rawat claimed that the party’s all five candidates will surely taste victory in the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place in the month of May. He also lamented that Congress-led UPA-II and state government has completely failed to keep a tab on rampant corruption and rise in the prices of essential commodities across the country. Meanwhile, the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha, Ajay Bhatt said that Congress-led state government is yet to finalize the names of contenders for the upcoming parliamentary elections and lamented that Congress party is facing the brunt of wrangling. Bhatt said that change of face in the Congress-led state government would not be proved beneficial for the state as the state government has not introduced any beneficiary schemes for the upliftment of the weaker section of the society and disaster hit victims. However, it cannot be ruled out that joining of Maharaj to BJP has certainly give much-needed momentum to the party ahead of general elections, especially in the mountainous parts of the state. Sitting Tehri MP Mala Rajya lakshmi Shah, Haridwar parliamentary candidate Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, State General Secretary Prakash Pant, Mahanagar president Neelam Sehgal and many more party activists were also present.