The absence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was felt in Lucknow when Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the second groundbreaking ceremony for launch of industrial projects involving an investment of Rs 65,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh.

Singh being the MP from Lucknow, his absence at the function raised many questions.

Rajnath Singh’s representative in Lucknow, Diwakar Tripathi, told this reporter that as the Defence Minister was out of the country, he could not attend the second groundbreaking ceremony.

“Rajnathji is in Mozambique to attend a defence related conference. He wanted to attend this function but because of his official assignment, he was forced to give it a miss,” Tripathi said.

At the first groundbreaking ceremony on July 29, 2018 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid foundation stones of many industrial projects, Rajnath Singh, who was then Union Home Minister, had hogged the limelight.

In his address, he had then said that being MP of Lucknow he was happy that the first groundbreaking ceremony was being held in his constituency.

Questions were also raised over Rajnath Singh’s pictures missing from the hoardings put up in city for the second groundbreaking ceremony.

A sympathiser of Rajnath Singh said that all the prominent leaders had their pictures on the hoardings put up across the cities welcoming industrialists. Even Governor Ram Naik who is to retire on Monday, had his picture in the hoardings but only the picture of Manyavar (as Rajnath Singh is known among his supporters) is missing, he said.

Tripathi did not say anything about this but said a conference on defence industrial corridor was likely to be held in Lucknow and it would be attended by Rajnath Singh.