Nagpur: Amid high drama and lot of confusion regarding schedule of special trains, thousands of workers and functionaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party left from different parts of Vidarbha on Thursday for the party’s big bash in Mumbai. Sources said 30 special trains were ordered by the party to ferry workers from across Maharashtra to the state capital.
To celebrate BJP’s 38th foundation day, the party’s state unit had set a target to fetch at least 50,000 workers from Nagpur for the grand event on Friday to be held at Bandra-Kurla Complex. Besides nine special dedicated trains, several buses were arranged too. Many travelled in their own cars.
The workers had an anxious time as one
train left Ajni much before schedule while two others were delayed by hours. “We were shocked to see that the train scheduled to depart from Ajni at 10.30am had left at 8.18am carrying 32 passengers in its 15 coaches,” complained
BJP city spokesman Chandan Goswami. Those who reached later had to wait at the station till noon when another special train arrived.
At Nagpur station it was a different story as the special train supposed to leave at 1pm was nowhere in sight and was ready only around 3pm. “Men and women waiting for the train had a harrowing time at platform no. 3 where the workers had to sit amid stink and eat their lunch while waiting for the train to arrive,” said Goswami.
Admitting that the timing of the train leaving Ajni was changed on Wednesday, Central Railway spokesman SG Rao said the information was passed on to the party. BJP’s Vidarbha convener Dr Upendra Kothekar denied having received any such notice.
A top railway official said that trains departed late as they had to improve the poor condition of the rakes that came from Samastipur and Kanpur.
“The two rakes were handed over to us at Itarsi at 4.30am, 90 minutes behind schedule and were in horrible condition. Some coaches did not have functioning electric network while others had dirty toilets, and one power car was not working too. We did our best to repair them or replace them. This took time and the two trains — from Ajni and Nagpur — were delayed,” he said.
Dr Kothekar expressed happiness over the number of party workers they had managed to rustle up. “Around 60,000 people are on way,” he said Dr Kothekar, adding that special trains also left from Bhandara, Tumsar, Wardha, Ballarshah, Amravati, Akola, Chandrapur and Wardha.
Sources said 30 special trains were ordered by the party to ferry workers from across Maharashtra to the state capital
