Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a ‘sankalp’ (resolution) rally in Patna on March 3 to kick off the NDA’s poll campaign in the State. Mr. Modi would be sharing a dais with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, at an alliance rally, for the first time in nine years.
The State’s BJP leaders said they were working to organise a large turnout that would ensure a “historic rally”.
“Not less than five lakh people will attend the rally and we’re making arrangements for their smooth travel and stay in Patna on that day,” said Deputy CM and senior State BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. “All minute details are being taken care of to make the rally successful,” he added.
Mr. Modi was among the local party leaders who visited the rally venue at Gandhi Maidan on Wednesday to oversee the ongoing preparations.
All the NDA’s leaders in Bihar including Mr. Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan are scheduled to attend the rally.
Mr. Kumar, who is also president of the ruling JD(U), last addressed an NDA rally in the company of the then Gujarat chief minister Mr. Modi, in 2010, when the two leaders participated at a rally of the alliance in Ludhiana in Punjab.
The Gandhi Maidan was the venue for Mr. Modi’s election rally in 2013. when the event was rocked by serial bomb blasts.
On February 3, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had addressed the party’s Jan Akanksha (people’s expectations) rally at the same venue in Patna — a gathering in which the leaders of the Grand Alliance in Bihar had participated.
Huge billboards, hoardings and posters with pictures of the NDA leaders have sprung up along Patna’s main roads and lanes, sporting an invitation to the public for the Sankalp rally. As many as 17 trains and 8,000 buses have been booked to ferry people to Patna for the rally, said the organisers. Party leaders and legislators have been asked to arrange accommodation to enable people from their constituencies to come to the city for the rally. State presidents of BJP, JD(U) and LJP have appealed people to come to the rally to make it “historic”.
The district administration has made elaborate security arrangements to thwart any untoward incident during the rally. As many as 4,000 police personnel and 400 magistrates will be deployed at the venue of the rally. A police outpost has also been made operational at Gandhi Maidan under the supervision of senior police officials. “As many as 100 CCTV cameras and 60 door-frame metal detectors will be installed along with watch towers at the rally venue,” said Patna range Deputy Inspector General of Police Rajesh Kumar. Police patrolling had already been intensified in and around Patna in view of the rally, he added.
Patna police on Tuesday night arrested a man Udayan Rai, 46, from Adaltganj area under Kotwali police station in Patna on charges of posting a message on social media to trigger bomb blast at PM’s Modi Sankalp rally.
