In a rare gesture, PM spends few moments with octogenarian BJP leader Veena Bhatia in Thane 

Thane, Oct 5 (IANS) It was an emotional moment for the octogenarian BJP leader and former firebrand corporator Veena Bhatia when Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only inquired about her health but wished her well in Thane on Saturday. 

After the Prime Minister arrived at the venue to launch and inaugurate various projects worth Rs 32,880 crore, he walked up to Veena Bhatia, who has been working for the party since the Jan Sangh days - was not only a moment of joy for her but also for the party workers who had gathered there.

Veena Bhatia, who was known as the voice of the people while representing the ward from Kopari Colony in Thane east (a colony of refugees and migrants who had travelled after partition) has always remained loyal to the party.

She weathered all odds in male-dominated politics to establish herself as a fighter and a problem solver.

She was elected to the Thane Municipal Corporation for three terms from 1985 onwards. During the 1986 Mayoral election, four BJP corporators had defected and voted for the Congress nominee Vasant Davkhare when Veena Bhatia went by the party whip.

After the BJP took disciplinary action against those four corporators against anti-defection norms, it was Veena Bhatia who remained the sole strong voice of the BJP in the general body of the Thane Municipal Corporation.

She was appointed as the Leader of Opposition in the Thane civic body when she took up various issues including alleged misappropriation, irregularities and corruption in the installation of high mast lights. She took the civic body administration to the task.

The treasury members and a section of party workers had named her ‘Ranragini’ (fighter) while functioning as the corporator and also as a party functionary. She had held the post of BJP’s Thane unit chief.

BJP legislator from Thane constituency and an association of Veena Bhatia for over four decades, Sanjay Kelkar hailed the Prime Minister’s gesture of coming all the way to meet Veena Bhatia who had come there in a wheelchair.

“It is honouring the party workers who have remained loyal in good and bad times. It has sent a very positive signal. In very odd conditions, Veena Bhatia worked in the party. Even though she is now eighty-five years plus, she is very active in taking up developmental issues of the Kopari Colony area in particular and Thane east in general,” he said.

He added that her commitment to the ideology of BJP and RSS is strong and it is quite a rare phenomenon.

Veena Bhatia hails from the Sindhi community and she always asserted that mothers from the community should speak in Sindhi with their children. She was also actively associated with the Bhartiya Sindhu Sabha.

(Sanjay Jog can be reached at [email protected])