NEW DELHI: BJP leader Vijay Bahuguna, who was with the Congress till a few years ago, on Friday said that after the devastation wreaked by the Uttarakhand floods of 2013, then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had proposed that his government handle the reconstruction of the Kedarnath shrine.

“True, Modi ji came to my residence in Dehradun in 2013, and gave me a cheque of Rs 5 crore for relief work, on behalf of the Gujarat government. He also offered a Proposal to reconstruct and develop the shrine devastated in Kedarnath after the floods,” ANI quoted Bahuguna as saying.

Bahuguna, who was then chief minister of Uttarakhand, however, had to refuse the offer, for reasons he did not specify.

“I thanked him for his proposal and said we will consider it. Later, we decided to do it ourselves, and he was informed of the same. The circumstances were such that we took that decision; I won’t comment on this as I am not with Congress anymore,” he added.

PM Modi, who visited the Kedarnath shrine today, in his address to the people there alleged that though Bahuguna had agreed to the reconstruction proposal, the then-UPA government at the Centre had pressured him to say the state didn’t need Gujarat’s help.

The PM added, however, that he was convinced that God wanted him to carry out the reconstruction.

“After we won the Assembly elections in Uttarakhand (in February), I became convinced that ‘baba’ (god) wanted me to do the reconstruction job,” he said.

The PM’s visit to the holy site in Uttarakhand today, came on the eve of its closure for the winter.

(With inputs from ANI)