BJP state president CR Patil said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the tribal-dominated Dahod area of Gujarat on April 21. Though there was no official announcement of the Prime Minister’s visit, party sources said he is likely to speak at a rally in the area.
Incidentally, Patil had said on Tuesday that the central government had decided not to give green signal to the controversial Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project following protests by tribals in Gujarat. Elections in the BJP-ruled state are to be held by December. Tribal leaders within the state BJP had also appealed to the Center not to pursue the project.
Addressing BJP workers in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, Patil said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Gujarat on April 21. His first program in the morning will be in Dahod.” He said party workers would work to make it a grand event. Later speaking to reporters, he said that in the more than two and a half decades the BJP has been in power in Gujarat, the party has worked for the upliftment of tribal communities.
He said, “That’s why they are electing BJP candidates. While Congress organizes a press conference in Delhi on issues related to Gujarat, BJP workers hold meetings for the program to be held in tribal areas. There is a difference between,” he said. , He was referring to a press conference organized by the Congress in Delhi on Wednesday regarding the Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project. Congress Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil and MLAs Sukhram Rathwa and Anant Patel attended the press meet.
Patil had said on Tuesday that the Center had decided not to approve the Par-Tapi-Narmada project.
The decision was taken after tribals organized massive rallies in Valsad and other parts of South Gujarat to protest the announcement about the project made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech last month. Sitharaman had also said that the central government would provide assistance for this and other river-linking projects only after there is an agreement between the respective states.
The Par-Tapi-Narmada project envisages transfer of water from surplus areas of the Western Ghats to the water deficient areas of Saurashtra and Kutch. It proposes seven new reservoirs in northern Maharashtra and south Gujarat.
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