Bhubaneswar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah began his Odisha tour by performing ‘Jal-abhishekh’ (consecration) at Shree Lingaraj Temple here on the last Monday of the holy Shravana month, spending around 20 minutes inside the 11th century Lord Shiva shrine here amid tight security.
Accompanied by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi and other senior BJP leaders, Shah, after offering prayers, waved at the devotees standing in queues outside the shrine.
Ten platoons of police force were deployed at the temple during the visit.
Shah, from there, left for BJP state president Samir Mohanty’s residence here, where he had breakfast with his family and other party leaders.
He next visited Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birthplace at Odia Bazar in Cuttack.
The Union home minister paid floral tributes at the statue of the revolutionary leader. He also took a tour of the Netaji Museum, where collectives and memorabilia associated with Bose’s childhood have been put on display.
On his way to Cuttack, Shah was welcomed and greeted by BJP workers at different locations.
He received flower bouquets from people standing on both sides of the road.
Later in the day, Shah is scheduled to attend the 75th-anniversary function of Odia daily ‘Prajatantra’.He will launch a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among other programmes.
The Union minister, who arrived in Odisha around 1.30 am, was received at the airport here by party leaders and workers.
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Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place on the stretches through which his cavalcade passed.
Meanwhile, bureaucrat-turned-politician and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi raised questions over the absence of the Odisha minister of state for home, the home secretary or the director general of police (DGP) during Shah’s arrival.
A special secretary of Odisha’s home department represented the state government at the airport.
“Protocol was breached during the Union Home Minister’s visit as neither the MoS (Home), nor the home secretary or the DGP were present at the airport. A person of his stature can arrive any time of the day, but the state is duty-bound to go by the protocol,” Sarangi told reporters.
“The Union minister has all along stood by Odisha even as it is ruled by a non-NDA government. He treats states in a non-partisan manner. The BJD government, however, ignored him,” she added.
