MP BJP puts off felicitation of six ministers in Modi govt after ex-Union minister’s wife dies

Bhopal, Jun 16 (PTI) The BJP postponed a function to felicitate the six newly inducted central ministers from Madhya Pradesh on Sunday due to the demise of former Union minister Satyanarayan Jatiya’s wife, a party functionary said.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Virendra Kumar, Savitri Thakur, Durgadas Uikey and Rajya Sabha member from MP L Murugan were to be honoured at the event here in the evening.

“The function to welcome the six ministers from MP has been postponed due to the demise of the wife of the parliamentary board member, former state BJP president and ex-Union minister Satyanarayan Jatiya. We received the sad news at 2 pm,” BJP general secretary and MLA Bhagwandas Sabnani told reporters.

The ministers will garland the statues of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) founder and former Union minister Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and Deendayal Upadhyaya, a key BJP ideologue, at the party office here, he said.

Earlier, Chouhan, four-time chief minister and the party’s most popular leader in the state, was given a rousing welcome after he arrived at Bhopal station from Delhi on a train.

In a specially designed vehicle, Chouhan, who won from Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 8.2 lakh votes and took oath as the Union agriculture minister, set off to the state party office here.

During his train journey to Bhopal, Chouhan interacted with passengers and played with children. After the train entered MP, he was welcomed at every station during stoppages till Bhopal. PTI LAL NR