PM Modi writes to kin of BJP workers who died due to Covid-19 in Uttar Pradesh
The move comes in the midst of a BJP campaign in UP to connect with families of those party workers and citizens who lost their lives due to Covid-19
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written letters to the families of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers who died in Uttar Pradesh due to Covid-19.
“Individual letters are being sent to cadres from the PM office,” a BJP leader said, adding that the gesture indicated the party’s leadership’s continued focus on the state.
The move comes in the midst of a BJP campaign in UP to connect with families of those party workers and citizens who lost their lives due to Covid-19.
The prime minister’s letters were sent separately to each family. Modi, who is also the Varanasi MP, has recalled the contribution of the party workers and added that he felt their loss.
Three ministers and seven party lawmakers, their family members and countless cadres succumbed to Covid-19 since March 2020 in UP.
Though the letters are reaching the intended recipients now, they are dated June 9, just a week after the party’s national general secretary BL Santhosh had first arrived on a fire-fighting mission to UP, where assembly elections are due early next year.
After Santhosh’s first visit, UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev had begun undertaking visits to cadres’ homes across the state. The UP government has also begun accommodating cadres to various commissions and boards. The party, BJP leaders said, has also fielded family members of deceased functionaries in the zila panchayat chairpersons’ elections.
“The party’s outreach campaign to cadre homes by state BJP leadership will continue. In each of these visits, we are telling the cadre that though their loss is irreplaceable, the party is there with them,” a BJP worker said.
Praising the PM’s move, the UP BJP chief tweeted, “We aren’t just a political party. We are a family.”
“That’s why the PM has sent letters to share grief of family members who lost their loved ones,” he said.
Some BJP workers like Dilip Srivastava, a party corporator from Indiranagar in Lucknow, also organised a function to pray for those who died of Covid-19. Several BJP leaders, including former minister Rajendra Tiwari and party spokesman Hero Bajpai, were present.
The BJP has also made preparations for the 78th edition of PM’s radio talk show Mann ki Baat on Sunday.
“Now, on the last Sunday of each month, the party workers would hear the PM’s radio talk at the booth level,” a BJP leader said.
BJP national president JP Nadda has shared a letter sent to him by one Anand Swaroop Dwivedi praising PM’s talk show.
“The BJP chief has urged cadres to hear Mann ki Baat at a booth level worker’s place,” a BJP leader said, describing the party’s plan to build an emotional connect with cadres in an election year.
CAPTION: BJP corporator Dilip Srivastava organised a function in memory of cadres who lost their lives during the Covid surge. Cadres lit a lamp in memory of the dead. Several BJP leaders attended it.