Ministers donate blood and launch directory of donors

LUCKNOW: Ministers of the Yogi Adityanath government donated blood in various parts of the state before launching the ‘blood directory’ containing a list of about 1.35 lakh voluntary blood donors. These donors will be ready to donate blood to the poor on demand. The move is part of the BJP’s attempt to connect with the masses in the rural areas by forming what a party leader described as ‘khoon ka rishta’ or blood relation with the masses. “This is the first time when a campaign like this has been undertaken by a political party and supported by the government,” deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said.

LUCKNOW: Ministers of the Yogi Adityanath government donated blood in various parts of the state before launching the ‘blood directory’ containing a list of about 1.35 lakh voluntary blood donors. These donors will be ready to donate blood to the poor on demand.

The move is part of the BJP’s attempt to connect with the masses in the rural areas by forming what a party leader described as ‘khoon ka rishta’ or blood relation with the masses.

The ‘blood relation’ campaign is being talked about as the brainchild of BJP chief Amit Shah who has been regularly breaking bread with Dalits and OBCs as part of an attempt to connect the party with these influential groups. “First Shah came up with the idea of ‘roti ka rishta’ and now he has come up with ‘khoon ka rishta’ to help connect the party and the government with the people,” a BJP leader said.

UP BJP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal toured the state to encourage the party cadres to come forward for blood screening during a weeklong campaign.

“The name and contact details of the cadres have been compiled and the directory of blood donors will be kept in all government hospitals and blood banks to help the poor get blood in an emergency. It’s a first of its kind exercise aimed at getting the party and the government to connect with the common man in keeping with our ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya’s philosophy,” minister Siddhartha Nath Singh told HT. He donated blood in Ballia.

In Kanpur, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya described ‘blood donation’ as a noble exercise. He also donated blood. The other deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma (Lucknow) and ministers Surya Pratap Shahi (Saharanpur), Rita Joshi (Jaunpur), Brijesh Pathak (Bareilly), Suresh Rana (Balrampur), Swatantra Dev Singh (Mirzapur) also launched ‘blood directory’.