In a first, Adityanath’s cabinet meeting at Kumbh, a dip at Sangam is next

india

Updated: Jan 29, 2019 13:32 IST

The office of the Prayagraj Mela Authority which organises the Kumbh Mela today became the venue of a cabinet meeting for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

This is the first time that the U.P. cabinet is holding an official meeting outside Lucknow. The meeting in Prayagraj is part of a series of decisions that Adityanath has taken to boost the profile of the Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s largest pilgrimages.

People familiar with the U.P. government’s stand on the Ram temple issue said the cabinet could pass a formal proposal to honour public sentiments and the need to expedite the hearing of the Ayodhya dispute in the Supreme Court..

Ahead of the meeting, Adityanath and his cabinet ministers visited the Allahabad fort built by Mughal emperor Akbar to see the Akshaywat, an ancient banyan tree mentioned Hindu mythology.

The ministers are scheduled to watch the Vicky Kaushal-starrer Uri at a special screening in a mobile theatre after the meeting and then take a dip at Sangam.

Special security arrangements have made around the integrated command and control centre, the venue of the cabinet meeting, in Sector 1 of the Kumbh Mela area.

Adityanath expects the Kumbh mela to boost the BJP’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh in the general elections due by May. The state sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and the BJP has been insisting that it will better its record of 71 seats that it won in 2014.

But the pitch has been queered by the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in U.P. and the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as Congress general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh which is Adityanath’s stronghold.