A grand venue for a grand event. Yogi Adityanath will take oath at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium, named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at 4 pm today. India’s who’s who are on the guest list, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan
Yogi Adityanath will take oath in a mega ceremony in front of a crowd of 75,000 people. AFP
It’s a big day for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh. Yogi Adityanath will be sworn-in as the chief minister of the state after a historic win in the state Assembly elections. As Adityanath rises up the ranks, the event is expected to be grand. It is BJP’s way of setting the tone of the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.
The party has zeroed in on a venue that fits the occasion. Adityanath will take oath at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. We tell you why it’s no run-of-the-mill choice.
Keeping with BJP’s tradition of renaming structures, the Ekana Stadium was renamed after the party stalwart Vajpayee in 2018. Ekana means “Vishu” and after Adityanath came to power in UP, he decided to dedicate the state-of-the-art ground to the former prime minister.
Houseful on Friday
It’s known for its cricket ground but it also has world-class squash, badminton and basketball courts, an international size football ground, kabaddi arena and rinks for wrestling and boxing. The Ekana Stadium has a capacity to house 50,000 people. It’s the third-largest in India and the sixth-largest in the world in terms of seating capacity. And it’s going to be houseful on Friday.
The ceremony is a show of BJP’s strength ahead of 2024 and arrangements are made to accommodate around 75,000 people. Preparations for the mega event are being done under Chief Secretary DS Mishra. “Seating arrangements for 75,000 people are being made for the swearing-in ceremony. The programme will be a grand and splendid…” Additional Chief Secretary (information) Navneet Sehgal said.
A stage of VIPs is prepared at the northern end of the stadium. Seating arrangements have been made on the entire bowl-shaped ground with four cricket pitches barricaded.
The security is expected to be top notch. A 7,500-strong police force along with Special Protection Group and Anti-Terrorism Squad will form a three-tier security ring around the stadium. Thousands others will be deployed across the city.
The Lucknow Municipal Corporation has set up 27 mobile toilets, besides the 80 washrooms in the stadium complex, 16 of which will be reserved for state guests and VIPs. Around 400 sanitisation workers will be deployed at the stadium to ensure it remains spotless throughout the ceremony. Apart from this, there are trash bins in every corner and signage discouraging attendees from littering.
More than 150 vertical gardens and over 5,000 flower pots dot the Shaheed Path that leads to the stadium. The 16-km stretch from the Amuasi Airport, which will be used by the country’s most powerful on Friday, has been spruced up. The streetlights have been fixed and colourful LED strips are in place. Cut-outs of Adityanath and posters of BJP leaders welcome guests to Lucknow.
Who will be at Ekana Stadium today?
The who’s who of the country find their name of the guest list. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend along with Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda.
Invitation has been sent to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and all Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states. Bhagwat is in UP but is unlikely to attend as “he doesn’t take party in swearing-in ceremonies in the state”, a BJP leader told The Indian Express.
Yogi Adityanath has personally invited former UP chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati to the ceremony.
BJP has also invited India’s top business tycoons – Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and 60 others. Bollywood will also be reportedly present. Biggies Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Kangana Ranaut and Boney Kapoor have been invited. But among the presence of these mega celebrities, all eyes will be fixed on the team of the popular film The Kashmir Files – director Vivek Agnihotri and veteran actor Anupam Kher, who are expected to attend.
Adityanath has become a face of Hindutva in the country and it comes as no surprise then that seers and saints are invited to the gala. They will be coming from Haridwar and Ayodhya. Yoga guru Baba Ramdev is on the guest list.
The long guest list is inclusive and features names of booth workers beneficiaries of migrant and welfare schemes, and pravasi (non-resident) party workers deployed across districts, reports The Print.
Friday’s ceremony is far bigger in scale than the first time Adityanath took as Uttar Pradesh chief minister in March 2017. That ceremony was held at Lucknow’s Kanshiram Smriti Upvan. While it was attended by Modi, it was a humbler affair.
BJP’s mega affair is probably the most prominent event Ekana Stadium will host this year. What follows are Indian Premier League matches, which promise to be glitzy but not as historic.
With inputs from agencies
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