Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked all Bharatiya Janata Party MPs to undertake 150-kilometre padayatras, or foot marches, to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary on October 2. The prime minister said the parliamentarians can cover 15 km in their constituencies each day between October 2 and October 31, NDTV reported.
Modi asked Rajya Sabha members to visit the constituencies where the BJP’s organisation is weak, the news channel quoted minister Pralhad Joshi as saying. “These yatras will focus on the revival of villages and making them self-reliant, plantation drive and zero budget farming,” he said.
“Rajya Sabha MPs will be allotted a constituency,” Joshi said according to ANI. “Fifteen to 20 teams will be formed in each constituency. They will undertake 15-km padyatra daily. MPs will organise programmes on Gandhi ji, freedom struggle, tree plantation. There will be a party-level committee to implement it.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among the senior BJP leaders who attended the meeting with the parliamentarians.
“PM told the meeting that whatever we said in our Sankalp Patra [election manifesto] should be reflected in our vision of the future,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who briefed the lawmakers on the Budget.
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