The ashes of the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would be kept at the State Bharatiya Janata Party head office on Thursday to enable the people to pay their last respect. On Wednesday, the State BJP chief Ajay Bhatt brought the urn containing the ashes of the departed leader from Delhi to Dehradun.
Four urns were handed over to Bhatt by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday.
In the programme attended by party president Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, family members of the late leader and a large number of party leaders and workers, the urns containing ashes of Vajpayee were handed over to the presidents of the State units of the party.
The BJP national vice- president and State party in-charge Shyam Jaju and BJP MlA Ganesh Joshi were with Bhatt when the latter received the urns. Braving heavy rains, a large number of party workers gathered at Dehradun airport Jollygrant when the urns arrived. later, they were placed on a flower-bedecked vehicle on which there was a huge picture of the late Prime Minister . The Kalash Yatra started from the airport and after passing through Bhaniyawala, Doiwala, Mianwala and Rispana bridge, it ended at the State party office on Balbir Road.
The State media in-charge of the party Devendra Bhasin said that the urns would be placed at a selected place in the party office at 8 am on Thursday and it would be followed by a meeting meant to pay homage to Vajpayee. He said that the people would be able to pay their respect to their beloved leader from 10 am to 5 pm on the same day.
The BJP leaders said that the late Prime Minister had expressed a wish that his ashes be immersed in all the rivers flowing through India.
This is why the party is organising Kalash Yatras across the country, they said. It is learnt that in Uttarakhand, the party is planning to take out ‘Kalash Yatras’ to all the 95 blocks of the State before the ashes are immersed in rivers.
Observers, however, say that the move is meant to milk the sympathy factor for political purposes.