PM Modi to attend Jayaprakash Narayan's birth anniversary function

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday attend a programme here to celebrate the 113th birth anniversary of social reformer Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP.

JP, who was born in 1902 at Sitabdiara in Bihar, had spearheaded the fight against the Emergency which was imposed on June 25, 1975 by late former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Loktantra Prahari Abhinandan at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi tomorrow (Sunday)," the PMO said in a statement on Saturday.

The event comes at a time when the first phase of voting is going to take place on Monday in Bihar where there is a fight between the BJP-led NDA and the grand alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress.

Addressing a press conference on October 7, BJP general secretary Arun Singh said it would be a nationwide campaign which would convey the messages of Bharat Ratna Jayaprakash Narayan and about the Emergency to the people.

Singh said the campaign will also highlight how Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, one-time followers of the anti-emergency Jayaprakash Narayan movement, joined hands with Congress, the party which had imposed it.

On this occasion, 800 people, arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency, would be honoured.

Modi will later visit Mumbai to pay tribute to Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the principal architect of the constitution. 

"Modi will pay respects to Babasaheb Ambedkar and unveil a plaque to mark the laying of the foundation stone of Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial at the Indu Mills Compound," the PMO said.

The prime minister will also lay the foundation stone for the fourth container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, and for two metro corridors.

He will address a public meeting at the MMRDA Grounds at Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai.