UP government has decided to construct four memorials in the name of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The government is learnt to have zeroed in on Atal’s ancestral village Bateshwar in Agra; Balrampur, from where he won his first Lok Sabha election in 1957; Kanpur where he received his higher education; and Lucknow, which he represented five times as a member of parliament. A senior government functionary confirmed to TOI that the construction of memorials has been mooted by chief minister Yogi Adityanath. “A formal decision to this effect would be taken soon,” a senior cabinet minister said.
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The development comes close on the heels of government plans of immersing Vajpayee’s ashes in rivers of various districts. A state government spokesperson said that Vajpayee’s ashes will be immersed in 29 rivers, including Ganga in Varanasi, Allahabad and Kanpur; Yamuna and Chambal in Agra; Ghagra and Rapti in Gorakhpur; Gomti in Lucknow and Barabanki, and Hindon and Kali Nadi in Baghpat. “Atalji was not just a leader but an ideologue of the party. He brought BJP to power. Constructing memorial for Atalji would be our tribute to him,” UP BJP spokesperson, Harish Chandra Srivastava told TOI.