PM Modi in Jharkhand, Amit Shah in Haryana on Yoga Day: Election is coming

Jharkhand, Haryana and Maharashtra are going to polls later this year. These three states were in special focus of the BJP for Yoga Day event today.

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In Short

  • First International Yoga Day was celebrated in 2015 after PM Modi's proposal at UNGA a year ago
  • PM Modi led the main Yoga Day event in India in Jharkhand
  • Amit Shah was in Haryana while Ramdev and Fadnavis led the event in Maharashtra

In the backdrop of push for one nation, one election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah led the main International Yoga Day events in Jharkhand and Haryana. These two states have BJP governments and will be going to the polls later this year.

Another state slated for assembly election this year is Maharashtra, where Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was accompanied by yoga guru Baba Ramdev, a strong votary of the BJP-Modi rule. In a way, the fifth International Yoga Day events were the beginning of the poll campaign in the three important BJP-ruled states.

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PM Modi led a crowd of 40,000 people in the Prabhat Tara ground located between two schools -- Prabhat Tara and St Thomas run by Christian institutions. Speaking on the occasion, PM Modi said, Yoga is above religion, caste, colour, gender and region; it is above everything."

PM Modi’s comrade-in-arms Amit Shah was in Rohtak, Haryana. The choice of the venue for Amit Shah is significant as Rohtak is the home turf of Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He was born here and remains the tallest Congress leader in Haryana.

Amit Shah took the occasion to promote Brand Modi that sells the most in elections. He said, Modiji has helped take yoga to the world. It has also helped promote our culture. Yoga today has become ambassador of our culture to the world.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah doing yoga in Rohtak, Haryana on the occasion of International Yoga Day on Friday. (Photo: Twitter/@AmitShah)

The Union home minister also expressed gratitude to yoga teachers for promoting the ancient Indian practice and named Ramdev as one of the champions of the cause. It was not just incidental that Ramdev led the main Yoga Day event in Maharashtra.

Ramdev was originally scheduled to hold an event on Yoga Day at Har Ki Pauri on the banks of River Ganga in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. But the event was cancelled last week without assigning any reason. Reports back then claimed that Ramdev’s Yoga Day programme was rescheduled at the request from the BJP leadership in the view of upcoming assembly election in Maharashtra.

Maharashtra CM Fadnavis joined Ramdev on the stage in Nanded and performed some of the asanas shown by the Patanjali Ayurved founder. Nanded is politically significant as it has been a Congress stronghold in Maharashtra. The Congress has lost Lok Sabha election from Nanded only twice since 1991 -- losing to the BJP in 2004 and 2019.

In his speech, Ramdev claimed that yoga was instrumental in Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi becoming the prime ministers. "Only those who practise yoga will enjoy rajyog (power)," claimed Ramdev.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis following Yoga Guru Ramdev on the stage of Yoga Day event in Nanded, Maharashtra on Friday. (Photo: Twitter/@Dev_Fadnavis)

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"Jawaharlal Nehru used to practise yoga and therefore his rajyog was good and he became prime minister. Indira Gandhi also practised yoga and she also had very good rajyogSimilarly, Modi practised yoga, and the son of a tea-seller became the prime minister. Now Rahul Gandhi is also practising yoga," Ramdev said.

All three states are likely to vote for new governments in October and the assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir could also be held simultaneously.

The International Day of Yoga is celebrated on June 21 every year since 2015. The day was adopted as International Yoga Day after PM Modi proposed this during his maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2014.