Lucknow, March 23: The city of nawabs, Lucknow, is all decked up in saffron colours for Yogi Adityanath’s oath taking ceremony as chief minister for a historic second consecutive term at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana stadium on Friday. Hundred and thirty crossings of Lucknow and all major roads have been decked up with flowers, placards, life-size cutouts of Adityanath and others adorned with festoons can be seen everywhere. The route from Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Amausi to Ekana Stadium and from the stadium to the BJP state headquarters are splashed with party colours — flags, banners and flowers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president JP Nadda and hundred of VVIPs will be present on the occasion. The ceremony will be at 4 pm.
The dignitaries will also include Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of BJP ruled states, governors, industrialists and opposition leaders, besides over 50,000 BJP workers and commoners. On Thursday, the newly elected BJP MLAs will elect Adityanath as the leader of the legislature party in the presence of Shah and other party senior leaders. BJP has 255 members in the 403-seat state assembly. Around 50 ministers will also be administered oath of office by Governor Anandiben Patel. Mahants of various maths and temples will also be present at the ceremony along with yoga guru Ramdev.
All leading industrialists who are operating in the state have also been invited. On Tuesday, the process of inviting guests by phone started at the BJP state headquarters here. Leaders of opposition parties, chief ministers of Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Arunachal, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Manipur and Goa were invited. The chief ministers of those governments running with the support of the BJP in Bihar, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Puducherry were also invited. Apart from the BJP ruled states, the Chief Ministers of all the states were being invited, they said. Officials said BJP workers will also come from other states. In the assembly elections, 2,500 workers who came from other states for BJP have also been invited. Arrangements for their accommodation have been made. Besides 100 workers from each assembly constituency of Lucknow and adjoining districts will also attend the ceremony. UNI
