The political tug of war between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Opposition over preparations for Chhath Puja, which dominated headlines over the week, culminated in a slew of photo ops as festivities related to it neared conclusion here on Thursday.
40 lakh migrants
Burning incense sticks and rural Bhojpuri numbers reverberated across the 600 ghats on the banks of the Yamuna as lakhs of devotees from the Purvanchal region of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, an estimated 40 lakh of whom are settled in the Capital, paid obeisance to the setting Sun.
CM Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and other Ministers of the State government visited the ghats to participate in the festivities and oversee the arrangements for the devotees which included a significant number of women. BJP and Congress leaders, too, visited the ghats and met devotees.
The ritual of arghya was performed by the womenfolk observing fasts, offering cow’s milk, fruits and vegetables as they stood in the water facing the setting Sun. The four-day Chhath festival will conclude with prayers and Arghya, or an offering of water, to the rising Sun early on Friday morning.
State BJP president Manoj Tiwari and his team visited several ghats in the evening. Ajay Maken, president of State Congress unit was also not far behind and visited numerous ghats and interacted with the devotees.
AAP govt flayed
Mr. Tiwari attempted to flay the AAP government for trying to “befool the people” by saying that it had spent ₹20 crore on Yamuna ghats betterment. “People very well know that the government money has actually not been spent, and it is the shramdaan of the people that resulted in better and clean ghats,” he alleged.
Mr. Maken blamed both the AAP government and the BJP-ruled municipal corporations for starting the preparations for the Chhath Puja festival “rather late and playing with the sentiments of the devotees”.
On its part, the AAP government said it had made a separate allocation of ₹20 crore for Chhath preparations and also declared a public holiday on the festival. The BJP-ruled civic bodies too made extensive preparations on the occasion, with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation earmarking ₹41.60 lakh for lighting of the ghats.
This year the number of ghats where Chhath Puja was held rose to 565 from 268 ghats last year. There are 50 permanent ghats for the festival, according to a government official.
