NDA gives full support to political baba
Opposition leaders flocked to share the dais with Baba Ramdev on Monday after the yoga teacher gave a call to oust the Congress. BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav joined the yoga guru at Ramlila Ground in the national capital on the issue of black money.
Apart from Mr Gadkari and Mr Yadav, TDP leader Nama Nageshwara Rao and Akali Dal representatives also sat on the dais along with the yoga guru. While sources said that Baba Ramdev had on Sunday night reached out and invited the Opposition leaders to the Ramlila Ground, the NDA leaders rushed to lend their support to the yoga teacher. Even political parties extending outside support to the UPA government gave moral support to Baba Ramdev’s movement. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav told reporters that his party was against black money and “whoever talks about bringing back black money, we will support”. BSP chief Mayawati, while expressing her support for the yoga teacher, asked the government to take steps to bring back the black money stashed abroad. She added that movements against corruption were above party politics and that if the Centre had taken timely steps to address the matter, the Supreme Court would not have had to intervene in the serious issue.
Mr Gadkari, addressing Ramdev’s supporters, pledged his party’s full support to the agitation against black money. Sources said Ramdev had called up Mr Gadkari on Sunday night to invite him to the venue. “The BJP is fully behind Baba in his fight against black money. He has our full support,” Mr Gadkari said in his speech.
In Bhubaneswar, Orissa chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Monday reiterated his support for Ramdev’s stir, saying, “We support all anti-corruption movements and our government has been working hard to stamp out the vice.”
On Sunday, the ruling BJD had sent its Rajya Sabha member, Mr Rabi Mohapatra, to Ramlila Ground to share the dais with Baba Ramdev as a signal of the party’s support for his movement against black money. Prior to launching his movement, the yoga teacher had met Mr Patnaik and sought his support for the agitation. The Orissa chief minister had then assured Baba Ramdev that the ruling BJD would support the agitation if it was conducted in “Gandhian style”.
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