The pictures and videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying respect to Lord Krishna underwater in the city of Dwarka on Sunday, his Ahir outreach during his two-day visit to Saurashtra.
The Gujarat Government signed an agreement with Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd to promote tourism for the mythical city.
He launched development projects worth Rs 4,800 crore, including the Sudarshan Setu which connects Dwarka city to the island of Bet Dwarka.
Coming out of the waters of the Arabian Sea after his dive into the waters, PM Modi said, ‘More than saahas, it was shraddha for me’.
He took a leaf out of his book from Ayodhya, he went on to invoke Lord Krishna before his address, and showered praises on the women of the Ahir community. Notably, Ahir community – an equivalent of Yadavs in the Hindi heartland, who see themselves as offsprings of the god.
Modi compared the “Ahiraniyo (Ahir women)” to mothers who took the “ovarna (worries off the heads of near and dear ones)”, Modi mentioned the ‘Maha Raas’ performed by 37,000 Ahir women on December 23 and 24 last year in memory of Usha, considered the daughter-in-law of Lord Krishna.
Modi also held a roadshow and thanked the Ahirs, a community that dominates the Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat, covering the districts of Jamnagar and Dwarka.
The seat was once held by the Congress’s Vikram Madam, but it was defeated by his niece Poonam Madaam of the BJP in 2014 and released by her in 2019.
Two of the seven Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha constituency – Kalavad, Jamnagar Rural, Jamnagar North, Jamnagar South, Khambalia, Dwarka and Jamjodhpur – have Ahirs as MLAs. While Mulu Bera of the BJP is the MLA from Khambalia, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP’s) Hemant Khava is the Jamjodhpur legislator.
In fact, a non-Ahir has not won the Khambalia Assembly seat since 1976.
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