Srinagar: A boat carrying Bharatiya Janata Party activists and some camera persons overturned in Srinagar’s Dal Lake today during an election rally led by party leaders MoS, Finance, Anurag Thakur, and the party’s national general secretary Tarun Chugh, among others.
The members who fell into the freezing waters of the famous lake were immediately rescued.
The party had organised a shikara (a wooden boat) rally in Dal lake for the ongoing District Developmental Council (DDC) elections. One of the boats carrying several activists capsized near Ghat Number seventeen adjacent to Chaar Chinary, local media reported.
Besides Anurag Thakur, also the BPJ’s in-charge for the DDC polls in J&K, and Tarun Chugh, BJP’s national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and several local leaders were also present in the rally.
“There were many mediapersons on the boat. Thankfully everyone is safe. It was a very good rally at Dal Lake. The boat capsized when it reached the shore,” Shahnawaz Hussain told NDTV.
The incident happened on a day when the sixth phase of the DDC elections is underway in J&K.
Meanwhile, social media in Kashmir was flooded with pictures of the capsized boat and reactions of netizens.
Sharing the pictures of the incident, Najmu Saqib, a spokesperson of the J&K People’s Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter: “Imported lotuses do not grow in our Dal Lake. P.S Hope everyone is safe(sic).”
Congress leader Salman Nizami, also shared the picture of the capsized boat on his Twitter and captioned it: “BJP drowned in Dal Lake, Kashmir!”
Kashmir journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz shared the video of the incident: