Meerut: Hundreds of Meerut denizens on Thursday joined the nation in performing asanas on 4th International Yoga Day at Kailash Prakash Stadium here. Several parks and schools also witnessed crowd of Yoga enthusiasts performing various asanas.The entire BJP brass of the region, including MP, MLAs and state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh also took part in the event at the stadium, which was criticized by the opposition parties as a BJP’s “political gimmick”. No opposition leader was present at stadium.“Like salt is needed in food, yoga is required for the body. If we don’t do yoga, the body is unable to energize itself for daily work,” said Singh while emphasizing on the need of Yoga in daily life. All the senior administrative and police officers were also present at the occasion.Local MP Rajendra Agarwal and all seven MLAs of Meerut region, including Sangeet Som, Satyavir Tyagi, Somender Tomar were present at the dais and performed asanas.The managers of Art of Living conducted the asanas which included Pranayam, Vajrasan, Bhujangasan, Padmasan, Halasana.However, leaders of opposition gave the programme a miss and labeled the entire exercise as a political gimmick.Speaking to TOI, district president of Samajwadi Party (SP), Rajpal Singh, said: “This party (BJP) has completely politicized Yoga which is an ancient form of exercise. Now they market it to gain political mileage. That is the reason why opposition did not participate. We are not against Yoga, but only against its politicization.”Senior Congress leader Puneet Sharma said: “This is just a drama. If Yoga has failed to impact any party, that is BJP itself. I sincerely advise their leaders to seriously practice Yoga and not just do it for photo opportunities. They day they start doing it seriously, the party will become humble.”

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