Children's death-BJP in damage control mode

With the opposition parties planning to launch a major agitation on the issue of the death of 30 children allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, a cornered BJP has gone into damage control mode.
 
As the opposition leaders made a beeline for the BRD Medical College expressing outrage over the deaths, senior saffron party leaders went into a huddle here to formulate a strategy to counter the opposition charge and contain further damage.
 
Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav, who visited Gorakhpur on Monday, held the Yogi Adityanath government responsible for the death of the children and assured all help to the kin of the victims.
 
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was also likely to visit the medical college on Tuesday, sources in the UP Congress party here said.
 
BSP supremo Mayawati has sent a delegation of party leaders to visit the grieving families of the dead children and extend all possible help to them.
 
The opposition parties also joined a call for 'Gorakhpur Bandh' on Monday to protest the deaths. The 'bandh', which was called by social organisations, evoked a good response though shops and business establishment remained open in some areas, especially those close to the Gorakhnath Temple of which chief minister Yogi Adityanath was the 'mahant' (chief).
 
The tragedy could not have come at a worse time for the BJP. Adityanath, who was still not a member of either of the house of the UP legislature, has to resign his Lok Sabha membership by September 19 after which a by-poll would be held at Gorakhpur.
 
''The deaths will be a major issue in the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-poll,'' said a senior SP leader here.
 
Sources said that the saffron party had asked its leaders in Gorakhpur to meet the families whose children had died owing to alleged shortage of oxygen and provide them help. The state government has not announced any compensation for the families as it will signal an admission that the deaths were caused by lack of oxygen.
 
Senior BJP leader Sunil Bansal, who rushed to Gorakhpur on Sunday, reportedly met Adityanath and other party leaders and discussed its political fall out.