UP Chief Minister fails to keep date at Eidgah

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday broke with a 43-year old tradition when he failed to turn up at the Eidgah to join the congregation in prayers on Eid-ul-Fitr.

Earlier BJP Governments had maintained the tradition and chief ministers like Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh made it a point to turn up at the Eidgah in Lucknow to wish people on Eid. But Yogi Adityanath, who is also the Mahanth of Gorakhnath temple, is clearly worried that his standing as a spiritual and temporal leader of the Hindus would suffer. Hence his decision to skip the function.

The tradition of CMs turning up at the Eidgah in Lucknow was started by Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna in 1974. Since then all the CMs have visited the Eidgah, confirm sources within the state government.

The Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, however, did turn up at the Eidgah and wished people ‘Eid Mubarak’ but the chief minister, who had earlier done away with Iftar, was conspicuous by his absence.

“We had sent the invitation to the chief minister as well as the governor almost 10 days back. This is a tradition which we have been following. But we did not hear from the CM’s office till last evening. We tried to contact the CM’s office but did not get any positive response. This is an old tradition which was broken today,” said Maulana Khalid Rashid.

The Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath did not host the traditional Roza Iftar at his official residence on Kalidas Marg this year. He did not attend the Iftar function held at the Raj Bhawan on June 23 either.

However, the Department of Information and Publicity of Uttar Pradesh had sent a Eid Mubarak message on behalf of Chief Minister last night.