Parties in poster war over Deoghar airport before PM Modi’s visit tomorrow

DUMKA: The invitation letters sent out by Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to dignitaries of all parties to attend the inaugural function of the newly built Deoghar airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 12 have sparked a political tussle among the ruling coalition in Jharkhand.
After JMM, its ally Congress has now joined the bandwagon to claim that it was during Manmohan Singh’s tenure as Prime Minister that the Deoghar airport project was conceptualised.
The Deoghar district Congress president, Munnam Sanjay, on Sunday posted Scindia’s invitation letter to state agriculture minister Badal Patrakekh on his Facebook page which mentions Deoghar airport to be a joint venture of the DRDO, AAI and Jharkhand government and that it was conceptualised during the UPA tenure.
Earlier, the local JMM leadership claimed on banners put up in the temple town that chief minister Hemant Soren had laid the foundation stone of the Deoghar airport. A few JMM posters also claims that Soren will inaugurate the Deoghar airport.
Soren, too, on Sunday reached Deoghar along with his wife and offered puja at Babadham before presiding over a high-level meeting with the officials to review the preparatory arrangements for the PM’s visit and upcoming Shrawani Mela.
Meanwhile, BJP is dominating the poster war on the PM’s Deoghar visit with photographs of no other party leaders except that of Modi himself to show gratitude for projects, including airport, AIIMS and others waiting to be inaugurated by him.
Banners and posters of JMM for the PM’s visit, on the other hand ,bear the photographs of both PM Modi and CM Soren on a green background rather than BJP’s saffron one.
“Electorates of Deoghar and elsewhere in Santhal Pargana are overwhelmed by the PM’s visit and eager to extend their thankfulness towards him for securing projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore in my parliamentary constituency only,” said Godda BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who has already been camping in Deoghar, claiming that the event would be historic.
The security arrangements in the temple town has been beefed up considerably ahead of the PM’s visit with a team of the SPG already swarming over places Modi will visit during his three-hour stay in Deoghar.