Kanpur: Senior BJP leader, and sitting MP from Kanpur Nagar, Murli Manohar Joshi, who was denied ticket by the party, did not turn up at the historic Ganga Mela at Sarsaiyya Ghat on Tuesday evening.After the news came in that Joshi has been denied ticket, speculations were rife that he might refrain from coming to the Mela venue, and this turned out to be true.It was a jolt for the BJP workers who waited for Joshi throughout the day but he skipped the event. BJP district president Surendra Maithani while talking to TOI confirmed that Joshiji did not come to attend Ganga Mela for reason not known to him.However, other senior leaders of the party, including UP cabinet ministers Satyadeo Pachauri and Satish Mahana met party workers and other politicians at the mela venue. Pachauri was happy because his name is in the list of candidates who would be contesting the Lok Sabha election.Congress candidate Shiprakash Jaiswal was also cynosure of all eyes. The moment he arrived at the mela venue, overjoyed party workers surrounded him and raised slogans in his support. Jaiswal patiently met people and greeted them on the occasion of Ganga Mela.Mayor Pramila Pandey, SP MLA Amitabh Bajpai, BJP MLA Abhijeet Singh Sanga, former BJP MLAs Raghunandan Bhadauria, Neeraj Chaturvedi, Bal Govind Mishra and others also reached Sarsaiyya Ghat to meet and wish people.Meanwhile, the week-long Holi festivities concluded with the celebrations of Holi Mela on Tuesday evening. Before the Holi Mela, the city was once again in the grip of riot of colours in the morning which continued till 4pm. Youths and kids started playing with colours since morning on the main road. Famous ‘Rangon ka thela’, as per the tradition, came out on the road from Rajjan Babu Park in Hatia, and after passing through Generalganj, Nayaganj, Badshahi Naaka and Birhana Road, it concluded at Rajjan Babu Park in the afternoon.In the evening, people started gathering at Sarsaiyya Ghat. Several social organisations, leaders of political parties, social activits, office-bearers of Bar Associations, Guru Singh Sabha, Hunter Sena etc had raised their stalls on both sides of the road between Sarsaiyya Ghat and Chetna crossing.An very senior citizen, Sampoornanand Gupta, with medals pinned on his chest, told TOI that he had been attending Ganga Mela for the last many years so that he could meet his old friends.Another mela visitor Sunil Singh said, “I met one of my friends after ten years. Many of my friends use to visit Ganga Mela every year and spend some time on this day on the bank of Ganga”.Later in the evening, a band of Varanasi presented Ganga ‘Aarti’ at the ghat.

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