Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been invited to an event in Mathura on May 25, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present, but not veteran BJP leader L K Advani. Deendayal Upadhyay Janmabhoomi Smarak Samiti, which is organising the function, said this is because Advani was never its member.
The event will be held at Deendayal Upadhyay Dham in Nagla Chandrabhan village in Mathura.
When contacted, Samiti secretary Roshan Lal said: “I know Vajpayeeji will not be able to attend the event because of poor health, but an invitation has been sent because he was first head of our Samiti and is still its patron. Advani has not been invited because he had never been member of the Samiti.”
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When told that Modi too is not a member of the Samiti and never visited Deendayal Dham earlier, Lal said: “We are only going to welcome Modiji, who is coming here to address a party rally, which will be a separate event. Modiji will garland statute of Deendayalji at Dham and meet our committee members.”
Lal confirmed most members of the Samiti are from RSS and its different offshoots.
Vajpayee as prime minister had visited Deendayal Dham in 2001 to launch Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana.
Advani too had visited Deendayal Dham in 2002 to attend a programme of Nehru Yuva Kendra.
On Monday, Modi will visit the memorial of Deendayal Upadhyay in Nagla Chandrabhan before addressing a rally on a nearby ground.
He will also hold a closed door meeting with nearly 50 RSS men who are members of the Samiti.