Lucknow, May 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend an International Yoga Day programme in Lucknow on June 21 along with 55,000 participants, but the "million dollar question" for the BJP is whether Yogi Adityanath will relinquish his saffron kurta and lungi for the occasion and don a T-shirt.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister announced today that the programme would be organised at the Ramabai Ambedkar Ground and 55,000 people from the state would take part. The figure is nearly 20,000 more than the record-breaking turnout at the Modi-helmed International Yoga Day spectacle on New Delhi's Rajpath two years ago.
Adityanath said the Prime Minister would perform yoga on that day. "There will be 55,000 participants along with the Prime Minister," he said in Lucknow after a meeting with Union home minister Rajnath Singh, also the local MP.
Adityanath said he had directed officials to organise similar programmes in all district headquarters, tehsils, block offices, schools, colleges and public places across the state.
"There will be arrangements for yoga mats, T-shirts, refreshments and free transportation for the participants at the main programme in Lucknow. Those who want to take part in the main programme can register themselves," the chief minister said.
The participants will be trained for 28 days before they are allowed to join Modi's programme. Last year, the Prime Minister had taken part in an International Yoga Day event in Chandigarh.
Adityanath has asked officials to promote the event extensively and install LED screens at parks and other public places in Lucknow to telecast the programme live.
Modi has earlier been seen in public wearing T-shirts. A BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh said they wanted to see if Adityanath sported the attire for the programme. "It is a million dollar question for us," said the leader, who did not wish to be named.
The Congress criticised the BJP for spending lavishly on such programmes and trying to divert attention from deaths of soldiers and rising crimes.
Dwijendra Tripathi, the Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson, said: "Our soldiers are dying on the border under Modi's rule. The crime rate is going up in Uttar Pradesh under Yogi's rule. But these people are prepared to spend several crores in organising yoga events because they believe they can divert the people's attention from the burning issues."
