BJP MPs turn vote of thanks on Prez speech into poll talk

With an eye on the upcoming Delhi elections, the Centre on Monday fielded South Delhi BJP MP Ramvir Bidhuri to move the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address in Lok Sabha. It was seconded by the party's Patna Sahib MP Ravishankar Prasad, a move clearly aimed at attracting the Purvanchali voters in the city state and also underlining the significance being attached to the Bihar Assembly poll scheduled to be held later this year.

Bidhuri, while initiating the discussion on the Motion of Thanks in the Lower House, lambasted the AAP-led government in Delhi and said that only God or Prime Minister Narendra Modi can develop the city.

Prasad, seconding the motion, claimed while reading from a book that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru never wanted Rajendra Prasad, a tall leader from Bihar, to become the country's first President and did not even attend his funeral in 1963.

As the Lok Sabha turned into a battleground for the Delhi Assembly poll, Bidhuri launched an all-out attack on the AAP government alleging that they "looted" the national capital and turned it into "hell".

Initiating the debate on the motion of thanks on the President's Address, Bidhuri read out a list of initiatives of the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused the AAP government of depriving the people of Delhi of benefits like housing, transport, healthcare among others. The Lok Sabha member from South Delhi also asked the Congress members to support him and reminded the main Opposition party of the remarks that the AAP leaders had passed about their leaders.

Bidhuri listed out development work such as building biodiversity parks along the banks of the Yamuna river, expressways to ease traffic congestion and infrastructure projects carried out by the Centre in the national capital. "Such work is possible only if God comes down to Earth or such miracles can be done by Modi ji and no one else," the South Delhi MP said.

Ravishankar Prasad, who spoke after Bidhuri, expressed concern over Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's 'poor lady' remark on President Droupadi Murmu and while quoting from a book written by veteran journalist Durga Das in 1959, pointed out that even Jawaharlal Nehru did not want Rajendra Prasad to become the President, neither in 1952 nor in 1957.

Ravishankar further claimed that Nehru did not even attend Rajendra Prasad's funeral in 1963 and went out of station. He tried to discourage then President S Radhakrishnan from doing so too.

Speaking on the rich heritage of Purvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, a key part of electorate in poll-bound Delhi), the BJP MP said that people originating from the region have held constitutional posts in various countries in the West Indies and even Maldives.