Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Uttar Pradesh and district officials that carried the ashes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, fell into the water when their boat tilted during the immersion in Kuano River on August 26, officials said.
According to news reports in Times Now, sources informed, “The MP and MLAs participating in the ceremony, along with the district magistrate and the superintendent of police, fell off the unbalanced boat. Former state BJP chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi, MP Harish Dwivedi, legislator Ram Chowdhary, senior BJP leaders and Superintendent of Police Dilip Kumar were on the overcrowded boat.”
“As the boat was close to the bank everybody was immediately pulled to safety,” officials said.
Basti’s Superintendent of Police Dilip Kumar told PTI, “When the boat tilted to one side people jumped off towards the bank. All of them were immediately taken out, and there was no casualty.”
The ashes of former prime minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee were handed over to all the party state unit presidents for immersion in revers located in all districts of India by PM Narendra Modi.
On August 25, the ashes were immersed in the Ganga river at Varanasi while the urn carrying the ashes of Vajpayee was taken in a procession from Phoolpur. Crowds thronged the processions to pay their last respects to the diligent BJP stalwart.
Previously, Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla had attacked the Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and the entire BJP for politicising the death of Vajpayee for political gains. “The way BJP is carrying the ashes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee around the country, it is a show-off and for votes. Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and his cabinet never remembered him until now, especially when he had created the state,” she had said.
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