The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Sunday, 5 August, inaugurated the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway station, which was earlier known as Mughalsarai.
The railway station, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, was formally renamed after the RSS ideologue on Sunday.
Shah used the platform to once again attack the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, saying the grand old party couldn't do in 55 years what the BJP had done for Uttar Pradesh and the country.
On the issue of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC), Shah challenged the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Bahunjan Samaj Party (BSP) to make their stand clear.
Complying with Supreme Court orders we brought NRC. The NRC is a way to evict illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam. I would like to ask SP, BSP and Congress to clear their stand on whether they want illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to stay here or evict them.BJP President Amit Shah at inauguration
“Mamata Banerjee and Congress say that NRC should not be done. I ask Rahul Baba whether NRC should be conducted in the country or not. But, he does not answer,” Shah said, adding “you all should tell whether the Bangladeshi infiltrators should be pushed out (from India) or not.”
Shah repeatedly asked the audience if they were ready to bring the BJP back to power in 2019, “for the road to Delhi goes through Uttar Pradesh only.”
"Five years later when we will return to seek votes, BJP will have made Uttar Pradesh the top state in the country," he said.
Along with Shah, Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were also present at the station to flag off a passenger and a goods train with all-women crews. Additionally, the three leaders are likely to launch a “smart yard” project.
The move can be seen as another bid to revive the legacy of the late Jan Sangh leader Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who died under mysterious circumstances at Mughalsarai station in 1968.
The proposal to rename the station, which was announced by Yogi Adityanath’s government on the centenary of Upadhyay in June, was met with strong opposition.
The Centre approved the move in early August. The station was retouched with saffron paint ahead of the rechristening, and new signboards have been put up as well.
The railway station is considered to be one of the oldest ones in India. It was built by the East India Company in 1862 and is considered the fourth busiest railway station in India with about 125 passenger trains passing through it.
(With inputs from The Indian Express, ANI)
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