Raipur (Chhattisgarh):

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday said the renaming of Motera stadium reflects a tradition followed by BJP, which had done something similar during the tenure of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

“It’s BJP’s tradition. When Atal ji was alive, Atal Chowk was named after him. He was no more the PM but Atal Chowk was named after him in Chhattisgarh. It’s a sign that Modi ji will soon be a former (PM) like him,” Baghel said while addressing a press conference about the state budget.

It’s BJP’s tradition. When Atal ji was alive, Atal Chowk was named after him. He was no more the PM but Atal Chowk was named after him in Chhattisgarh. It’s a sign that Modi ji will soon be a former (PM) like him: Chhattisgarh CM on Motera Stadium renamed as Narendra Modi Stadium pic.twitter.com/YDhTNz0BGs

— ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2021

Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the newly-built Motera Stadium which was renamed the Narendra Modi Stadium ahead of the pink-ball Test between India and England. The stadium is the biggest cricket stadium in the world as it has a total capacity of 1,32,000.

Congress and other opposition leaders had criticised the BJP for renaming the stadium, which was earlier named after Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

BJP had hit back at the criticism and said that institutions and buildings have been named after leaders of the Gandhi-Nehru family.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters here, Chief Minister Baghel said the size of the state budget 2020-2021 was Rs 95,650 crores.

“The size of the main budget of 2020-21 was Rs 95,650 crores. The first supplementary size was Rs 3,807 crores, the second supplementary budget is 2,387 crores and the size of the third supplementary is 505 crores, the total size of the first second and third has been 1 lakh 2349 crores,” he said.