PM Modi in Jammu, will inaugurate the world’s highest railway bridge

Mangalore Today News Network

Srinagar, Feb 20, 2024: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Jammu on Tuesday to inaugurate a slew of development programmes and address a public meeting. This will be his second visit to Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and becomes crucial ahead of the coming Lok Sabha polls. The PM will also interact with beneficiaries of various government schemes as part of the “Viksit Bharat Viksit Jammu” programme.

 

The importance of the elections in J&K, which has not had an elected Assembly since 2014, was underlined by Union Minister Jitendra Singh who recently said the following in Udhampur: “We want the Prime Minister to visit J&K before the start of the election code of conduct.”

The visit is the PM’s first since the Supreme Court last December held the abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of J&K, as constitutionally valid and went on to order the restoration of statehood and instruct the Centre to hold Assembly elections by September 2024.

The BJP has hit the ground running in J&K. In January, the party held the first meeting of its state election committee in the Union Territory and a workshop on its countrywide “Gaon Chalo Abhiyan”.

In the 2019 polls, the BJP won two Lok Sabha seats – Jammu and Udhampur. These seats in the Jammu region are predominantly Hindu constituencies and could be easy seats to sail through this time too, with major opponents National Conference (NC), PDP and Congress not having any popular and widely recognisable faces here. Apart from this, the party is also looking at the Anantnag seat in Kashmir this time around, Sunil Sethi, the chief spokesperson of the J&K BJP unit has said.

On Tuesday, the PM will inaugurate AIIMS, Jammu; the world’s highest railway bridge over Chenab; and north India’s first river rejuvenation project — the Devika River project — in Udhampur. The 1.3 km-long rail bridge, located 359 metres above the Chenab, is 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and forms a crucial link in the 111-km Katra–Banihal stretch, which forms a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) Project. Modi will also flag off the first electric train in the Valley.

Watch out for the PM’s address at a public event at the Maulana Azad Stadium.

Farm agitation set to resume

A day after their fourth round of talks with the Union government, farmer leaders on Monday said they have rejected the Centre’s proposal to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) on three pulses, maize, and cotton. They will now resume their “Dilli Chalo” march at 11 am on Wednesday.

As the BJP looks to negotiate with the farmers, it will want to douse any problem that might arise ahead of the polls as far as optics are concerned. It remains to be seen how the Centre will respond. Will there be more talks, how will the Centre deal with the protesters and can the farmers make it to Delhi? These are all questions that will come up repeatedly in the coming days.

Amit Shah in Rajasthan

Meanwhile, in Rajasthan, the BJP has fully kickstarted preparations for the parliamentary polls. On Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address multiple BJP meetings in the state. The party, which won 24 of the 25 seats in 2019, is aiming to clinch all the seats this time.

Party leaders said Shah would focus on the three “’clusters” of Jaipur, Udaipur, and Bikaner during the visit. Each cluster includes three Lok Sabha seats.

The Bikaner cluster comprises Bikaner, Ganganagar and Churu constituencies, the Udaipur cluster includes Udaipur, Dungarpur and Chittorgarh, while Jaipur, Jaipur Rural and Dausa make up the Jaipur cluster.

Rahul in Raebareli

In Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will make its way to the Gandhi family bastion of Raebareli on Tuesday morning. Rahul’s mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is vacating the seat after four consecutive terms to contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Rajasthan. The party has won the Congress bastion in all but three Lok Sabha elections since 1951 and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s name is now doing the rounds as the new Congress candidate from the seat.

Courtesy: Indian Express