BJP to develop gallery of prominent people
HONOUR The party also plans to name parks in memory of freedom fighters, martyrs
LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto for the urban local bodies election promises a gallery in each of the municipal corporations, nagar palika parishads and nagar panchayats to identify and honor prominent personalities born within urban or semi-urban bodies of the state.
To begin with, one gallery each would come up in each of the 16 municipal corporations of the state if the party captures power after declaration of results of the three-phased elections on December 1.
The party also plans to name parks in memory of freedom fighters and martyrs besides preparing a light and sound show in places with historical value. Setting up of science parks in main cities is also part of the party’s commitment to people in 652 urban local bodies.
Busy painting the state saffron – from chief minister’s secretariat to buses and school bags– the UP government has already decided to get the state’s public works department (PWD) under deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to put up saffron signages in about 18000 or more roads in the state.
These saffron signages that would carry photographs of Adityanath and Maurya would also carry history of the places that are located on the side of the roads and famous personalities who were associated with it.
“We will collect all information about prominent personalities in each ward or urban local body and put them up with their work and contribution in galleries that are being planned in various parts of the state,” a BJP leader said.
To ensure its association with the people, the party has also promised to strengthen the weekly markets and regional or religious fairs. The party’s focus is on Hindu pilgrimage sites like Ayodhya, Mathura-Vrindavan, Varanasi, Naimisharanaya, Chitrakoot, Vindhyachal and Kushinagar.
“The economy of various religious or pilgrimage sites like Ayodhya revolve around fairs. We would like to strengthen this activity which we intend to scale up into a large scale tourist activity,” a BJP insider said.
Baring BJP’s plan for promoting religious tourism, UP BJP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, an RSS nominee in BJP, said that the temple town of Ayodhya would be completely transformed.
“We would like each and every wall of Ayodhya to recount the great history of fascinating religious characters of Ramayana. We want this great town from where Yogi Adityanath would launch the civic poll campaign to be on world tourist map,” Bansal said.
The BJP has always done well in municipal corporations but this time the party has also fielded candidates for nagar panchayats and nagar palika parishads (semi-urban bodies) on its ticket indicating Bharatiya Janata Party’s desire to keep its cadre in battle-ready mode ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that some feel could be preponed.