Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday attended ‘Makar Sankranti’ celebrations organised by Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan. Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Parrikar, Prakash Javadekar, Kalraj Mishra, Jitendra Singh and Harsimrat Kaur Badal also attended the event.
Mr. Modi visited Mr. Paswan’s residence around noon and had the traditional ‘dahi-chuda’ (curds and beaten rice flakes) dish. He was with Mr. Paswan and his family for over 20 minutes.
“Modiji wished all of us on the occasion. He had dahi-chuda,” Mr. Paswan beamed even as Mr. Modi tweeted his photograph with the message, “Enjoyed dahi-chuda with my colleague in the Union Cabinet, Ram Vilas Paswan.’’
ADVERTISEMENT
The Prime Minister was active on twitter throughout the day greeting people across the country in various languages including Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati, Hindi and English.
Greeting people for Makar Sankranti, Uttarayan, Pongal, Bhogi and Magh Bihu, Mr. Modi tweeted, “The festive spirit across India is gladdening. It celebrates the diversity of India we cherish and are extremely proud of.’’
Uttarayan, which is also celebrated as Makar Sakranti in north India, is the day when the sun starts to travel northwards marking the decline of winter and onset of harvest season.
ADVERTISEMENT
Another NDA Minister (Agriculture) from Bihar, Radha Mohan Singh also held a ‘dahi-chuda’ event which was largely attended by media personnel.
The BJP has declared a Mission-185 for capturing power in the 243-member Bihar Assembly which goes to the polls this year. It proposes to enrol 75 lakh members in the State.