BJP flags off “Ganga Pravah Yatra” to honour Sardar Patel

BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda on Saturday flagged off the “Ganga Pravah Yatra,” the second phase of the Sardar @ 150 Unity March, organised to commemorate the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Senior BJP leaders, including Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and National General Secretary Sunil Bansal, attended the departure ceremony in the capital.

Addressing the gathering, Nadda launched a sharp attack on the Congress, alleging the party failed to give Sardar Patel due recognition for decades. “It took 44 years for the Congress to acknowledge that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a Bharat Ratna, and that too only after the Prime Minister’s post moved out of the Nehru-Gandhi family in 1991,” he said.

Nadda added the BJP-led government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had restored Patel’s rightful place in national memory, citing the Statue of Unity in Gujarat and the Centre’s decision to celebrate his birth anniversary nationally.

He said India would not have faced the Jammu and Kashmir issue had Patel been allowed to handle the matter fully. Nadda noted that the first significant honour for Patel came when the Jan Sangh-supported Janata Party government built his memorial in Ahmedabad in 1978, but full respect was accorded only under the Modi government.

Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said Sardar Patel continues to live in the hearts of people because he united 565 princely states after independence. “No matter how much the Congress tried to ignore him, every Indian knows he shaped modern India,” he said.

Earlier, Sunil Bansal briefed party leaders on activities held across parliamentary constituencies during the first phase of the Sardar @ 150 Unity March. He said the Ganga Pravah Yatra, which began from Delhi, will start its journey in Alwar and travel through eight states as part of the outreach programme.

The event was attended by Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, MPs Bansuri Swaraj, Sardar @ 150 convenors MP Yogendra Chandolia and Sagar Tyagi, MLA Satish Upadhyay and other party functionaries.