Statue of Unity foundation: Advani is surprise guest invitee to Modi event

Senior BJP leader and former deputy prime minister L K Advani is the surprise guest invitee to the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Statue of Unity at Kevadia, Chief Minister and BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi's pet project to be built as a tribute to India's first deputy PM Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

On Tuesday, Modi shared the dais with PM Manmohan Singh at the inauguration of the Sardar Patel museum where he said that had Patel been made the first Prime Minister of India, the fate and face of India would have been different. The last time Modi and Advaniwere together, after the former was named the PM candidate, was on October 16 at the inauguration of the Sabarmati Riverfront garden.

Incidentally, the name missing from the invitation card for the grand event in the tribal district of Narmada is that of Cabinet minister for agriculture and water supply Babu Bokhiria, who has recently faced injunctions from the Gujarat High Court over encroachments.

Modi is expected to address a gathering of over 20,000 people at a school campus in Kevadia at 11 am, following which he will go to a spot on the bank of the Narmada river near Sadhu Tekri where he will perform the groundbreaking puja at an auspicious time of 12:39 pm. The site of the puja is around 6 kilometre from where he will address the public.October 31, the date of the ceremony, is celebrated as the 138th birth anniversary of India's first home minister Sardar Patel.

The other invitees to the event — Nitin Patel, Anandi Patel, Saurabh Patel, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Ganpat Vasava — will also accompany him to the puja ceremony. Tribal MP Mansukh Vasava has been invited as a special guest. Modi will also inaugurate the work to build the Garudeshwar Weir which will ensure water around the Sadhu Bet where the Sardar Patel statue is expected to come up. This will support boating and other tourism-related activity.