The BJP state unit is all set to give a rousing welcome to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he reaches Deoghar in the JMM stronghold of Santhal Pargana on Tuesday. PM Modi will reach the temple town before the month long Shravani Mela which commences on Thursday. PM is to lay the foundation stones of a slew of projects including the inauguration of much awaited Deoghar Airport and OPD facilities at AIIMS among others. The BJP workers on Monday lit around one lakh earthen lamps.
Not only BJP, the JMM, the big brother of Mahagathbandhan too has come forward to welcome PM for the gifts which Modi will give to Santhal Pargana—a political development which indicates the bonhomie between JMM and BJP and at the same time will upset Congress.
The ruling party JMM has put up posters on Dumka-Deoghar road and other locations in town welcoming the PM. The poster carries the picture of PM Modi, JMM national president and party patriarch Shibu Soren, Chief Minister Hemant Soren, ministers in Soren cabinet from Santhal Pargana including Hafizul Hassan and Badal.
Also, Chief Minister Hemant Soren is in Santhal and it is much likely that he will lead in welcoming the PM. On Sunday CM Soren visited Baba Baidyanath dham temple along with his wife Kalpana Soren. The couple performed the puja. Baba Baidyanath dham Jyotirlinga temple is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the most sacred abodes of Shiva. In Santhal Pargana, the Baidyanath Jyotirlinga has special importance as devotees from across the region visit the temple.
The CM on Sunday also chaired a high level meeting of senior officials including in-charge Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Singh, Director General of Police Neeraj Sinha, Cabinet Secretariat and Monitoring Department Principal Secretary Vandana Dadel, Road Construction Department Secretary Sunil Kumar, Tourism Department Secretary Dr Amitabh Kaushal among others and gave directives for OM visit.
Sources said that JMM sprang into poster war as opposition BJP had planned the welcome of PM much before. All major roads to Deoghar and roundabouts have huge hoardings and posters of the PM's function put up by the BJP State unit. Moreover, all top senior leaders of BJP including former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, BJP state president Deepak Prakash and others have been camping in Deoghar for the past one week seeing the preparations.
Party leader Babulal Marandi chaired a meeting with the state BJP office-bearers and district unit leaders to chalk out the finer details for welcoming the PM. Godda MP Nishikant Dubey is also active on the ground and on Twitter for more than a fortnight for the event in which the PM is expected to launch projects worth over Rs 16,000 crore.
Modi will arrive at Deoghar at 1.15 pm and inaugurate the State’s second airport, which has been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 400 crore. He will then visit the Baidyanath Dham temple at 2.40 pm.
Among the major projects the PM will inaugurate are the Deoghar airport, an inpatients department and an operation theatre at the newly constructed All India Institute of Medical Sciences , two pilgrimage congregation halls at the Babadham temple which have a capacity for more than 2,000 pilgrims each, two LPG bottling plants, a gas pipeline, a six-lane road and a railway doubling project among others.