The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will address the 'Hunkar' Rally in Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan on Sunday.
Media reports are suggesting that Modi's first target could be Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, while the second will in probability focus on denouncing the state's progress in the last eight years and outline his strategy to expedite the process.
How he words his criticism of the Bihar government's development claims will be crucial, because if he goes at it too hard, the ruling Janata Dal-United could use it to box the BJP into a corner pointing out that the latter was in the government till June 2013 before the 17-year-old alliance between the two parties broke.
The much-hyped BJP's rally is seen as a bid to mobilise support and strengthen the support base in the state.
Eleven special trains, 6,000 buses, 20,000 SUVs, a gizmo-laden stage with a 30-feet dynamic screen as background, scores of LED screens on the ground and an undefined amount of loose change – nothing is being spared to make Modi's rally a roaring Sunday show in Nitis's turf.
Although Bihar is not among the states going to the polls in November, Modi is making a detour to prove a point or two, as it’s the first BJP rally since its divorce with the JD (U). The split was triggered by Modi’s elevation as head of the BJP election campaign committee.
The rally in Patna promises to trigger a realignment of political forces in Bihar, a state that sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
Former fisheries minister Giriraj Singh of the BJP said on Saturday he expected a ‘spontaneous turnout of seven lakh people’ for the event, which will mark Modi’s debut appearance in Bihar after he was named his party’s PM nominee.
“It will be spoken of in the same breath as Bihar movement leader Jaya Prakash Narayan’s historic rally at the same venue, Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, on June 5, 1974, which attracted a sea of humanity,” Singh said.
If the rally does, indeed, turn out be such a blockbuster of an event, it may encourage many leaders of parties opposed to the BJP to switch over to its side ahead of the Lok Sabha poll.
Two sitting JD(U) MPs, Jainarain Nishad (Muzaffarpur) and Purnmasi Ram (Gopalganj) have been placed under suspension after they met Parshottam Rupala, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat in New Delhi recently.
“Cross party movements may certainly be expected in the run up to the poll”, said Bihar BJP president Mangal Pandey. But he declined to go into specifics.
However, intelligence sources put the expected rally attendance figure in the range of “two lakh or so”, modest in comparison to Giriraj Singh’s claim of 7 lakh.
But more than political niggling, the money being spent on the show – Rs. 10 crore, according to a state intelligence official -- has raised quite a few eyebrows.
JD (U) general secretary KC Tyagi said on Friday that he had asked the IT authorities to keep an eye on the expenditure. Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey responded: “The income tax authorities are welcome.”
Asked where the money is coming from, Vinay Kumar Singh, BJP MLA and chief organiser of the rally, said it would be raised through contributory coupons of R50 to Rs. 1,000 released through the party’s district presidents, 12 Lok Sabha MPs and 91 MLAs.
But on how much the coupons might fetch, Singh sounded defensive. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I have the details,” he promised, but never got back.
Bihar transport federation president Uday Shankar Prasad Singh estimated the cost of hiring 6,000 buses at Rs. 3 crore, while hiring 20,000 SUVs could cost Rs. 4 crore. “But such plain vanilla calculation can be misleading as vehicles are often hired out to political parties at highly concessional rates,” he said.
East Central Railway Zone (Hajipur) chief public relations manager Amitabh Prabhakar said the average cost of hiring a special train with 18 compartments was Rs. 8.5 lakh. So, having 11 trains will cost aboutRs. 93.50 lakh.
But no cost estimate for the jazzy stage could be obtained as an executive of the company that will manage the event refused to answer any question.
“The problem with this rally is it has measure up to the big hype that has preceded it”, said DM Diwakar, director of AN Sinha institute of social sciences, a leading Patna think tank.
“Just as success of the rally will act as elixir for the BJP, any disappointment in the Sunday show may give something for our opponents to latch on to,” confessed a senior BJP leader.
Already, four sitting BJP MLAs – Amarnath Gami (Hayaghat), Rana Gangeshwar (Mohiuddinnagar), Vijay Kumar Mishra (Jale) and Avanish Kumar Singh (Chiraiya), have been indicating a preference for the JD(U).
The public response to the rally, sources said, would also play a role in firming up electoral alliances in Bihar. It may, for instance, help decide if the Congress goes with Nitish’s JD(U) or revive its earlier alliance with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP.
The perception that the Congress and JD(U) were drawing closer has taken a hit in recent weeks after the JD(U) seemed to be warming up to the idea of a third front and Congress leaders making remarks critical of the Bihar regime.
Besides, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav is believed to be strongly opposed to his party’s alliance with the Congress. A call on this issue will be take at the JD(U) ‘chintan shivir’ which gets underway at Rajgir on Monday.
The BJP is organizationally strong in Bihar and having constituted 56,000 booth level committees with at least between five and 10 members each, it is better prepared than its rival for any election or a rally such as this one.
The problem for the BJP is it does not have any single state-level leader who can match the stature of Nitish Kumar. This is why it needs the ‘aura’ Narendra Modi to take on its rivals.
“I have nothing to do with the BJP. But I back Modi for the PM’s post”, said Upendra Kushwaha, a former JD(U) MP who resigned his Rajya Sabha seat a few months ago following differences with chief minister Nitish Kumar.
More: http://www.hindustantimes.com/specials/coverage/myindia-myvote/chunk-ht-ui-myindiamyvote-countdownto2014/modi-s-hunkar-in-nitish-s-turf-will-bjp-s-pm-candidate-launch-direct-attack-on-bihar-cm/sp-article10-1141006.aspx
Media reports are suggesting that Modi's first target could be Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, while the second will in probability focus on denouncing the state's progress in the last eight years and outline his strategy to expedite the process.
How he words his criticism of the Bihar government's development claims will be crucial, because if he goes at it too hard, the ruling Janata Dal-United could use it to box the BJP into a corner pointing out that the latter was in the government till June 2013 before the 17-year-old alliance between the two parties broke.
The much-hyped BJP's rally is seen as a bid to mobilise support and strengthen the support base in the state.
Eleven special trains, 6,000 buses, 20,000 SUVs, a gizmo-laden stage with a 30-feet dynamic screen as background, scores of LED screens on the ground and an undefined amount of loose change – nothing is being spared to make Modi's rally a roaring Sunday show in Nitis's turf.
Although Bihar is not among the states going to the polls in November, Modi is making a detour to prove a point or two, as it’s the first BJP rally since its divorce with the JD (U). The split was triggered by Modi’s elevation as head of the BJP election campaign committee.
The rally in Patna promises to trigger a realignment of political forces in Bihar, a state that sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
Former fisheries minister Giriraj Singh of the BJP said on Saturday he expected a ‘spontaneous turnout of seven lakh people’ for the event, which will mark Modi’s debut appearance in Bihar after he was named his party’s PM nominee.
“It will be spoken of in the same breath as Bihar movement leader Jaya Prakash Narayan’s historic rally at the same venue, Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, on June 5, 1974, which attracted a sea of humanity,” Singh said.
If the rally does, indeed, turn out be such a blockbuster of an event, it may encourage many leaders of parties opposed to the BJP to switch over to its side ahead of the Lok Sabha poll.
Two sitting JD(U) MPs, Jainarain Nishad (Muzaffarpur) and Purnmasi Ram (Gopalganj) have been placed under suspension after they met Parshottam Rupala, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat in New Delhi recently.
“Cross party movements may certainly be expected in the run up to the poll”, said Bihar BJP president Mangal Pandey. But he declined to go into specifics.
However, intelligence sources put the expected rally attendance figure in the range of “two lakh or so”, modest in comparison to Giriraj Singh’s claim of 7 lakh.
But more than political niggling, the money being spent on the show – Rs. 10 crore, according to a state intelligence official -- has raised quite a few eyebrows.
JD (U) general secretary KC Tyagi said on Friday that he had asked the IT authorities to keep an eye on the expenditure. Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey responded: “The income tax authorities are welcome.”
Asked where the money is coming from, Vinay Kumar Singh, BJP MLA and chief organiser of the rally, said it would be raised through contributory coupons of R50 to Rs. 1,000 released through the party’s district presidents, 12 Lok Sabha MPs and 91 MLAs.
But on how much the coupons might fetch, Singh sounded defensive. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I have the details,” he promised, but never got back.
Bihar transport federation president Uday Shankar Prasad Singh estimated the cost of hiring 6,000 buses at Rs. 3 crore, while hiring 20,000 SUVs could cost Rs. 4 crore. “But such plain vanilla calculation can be misleading as vehicles are often hired out to political parties at highly concessional rates,” he said.
East Central Railway Zone (Hajipur) chief public relations manager Amitabh Prabhakar said the average cost of hiring a special train with 18 compartments was Rs. 8.5 lakh. So, having 11 trains will cost aboutRs. 93.50 lakh.
But no cost estimate for the jazzy stage could be obtained as an executive of the company that will manage the event refused to answer any question.
“The problem with this rally is it has measure up to the big hype that has preceded it”, said DM Diwakar, director of AN Sinha institute of social sciences, a leading Patna think tank.
“Just as success of the rally will act as elixir for the BJP, any disappointment in the Sunday show may give something for our opponents to latch on to,” confessed a senior BJP leader.
Already, four sitting BJP MLAs – Amarnath Gami (Hayaghat), Rana Gangeshwar (Mohiuddinnagar), Vijay Kumar Mishra (Jale) and Avanish Kumar Singh (Chiraiya), have been indicating a preference for the JD(U).
The public response to the rally, sources said, would also play a role in firming up electoral alliances in Bihar. It may, for instance, help decide if the Congress goes with Nitish’s JD(U) or revive its earlier alliance with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP.
The perception that the Congress and JD(U) were drawing closer has taken a hit in recent weeks after the JD(U) seemed to be warming up to the idea of a third front and Congress leaders making remarks critical of the Bihar regime.
Besides, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav is believed to be strongly opposed to his party’s alliance with the Congress. A call on this issue will be take at the JD(U) ‘chintan shivir’ which gets underway at Rajgir on Monday.
The BJP is organizationally strong in Bihar and having constituted 56,000 booth level committees with at least between five and 10 members each, it is better prepared than its rival for any election or a rally such as this one.
The problem for the BJP is it does not have any single state-level leader who can match the stature of Nitish Kumar. This is why it needs the ‘aura’ Narendra Modi to take on its rivals.
“I have nothing to do with the BJP. But I back Modi for the PM’s post”, said Upendra Kushwaha, a former JD(U) MP who resigned his Rajya Sabha seat a few months ago following differences with chief minister Nitish Kumar.
More: http://www.hindustantimes.com/specials/coverage/myindia-myvote/chunk-ht-ui-myindiamyvote-countdownto2014/modi-s-hunkar-in-nitish-s-turf-will-bjp-s-pm-candidate-launch-direct-attack-on-bihar-cm/sp-article10-1141006.aspx
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