Even though the mainstream narrative supports the probability of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates winning from all the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand, the party is still heavily relying on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure it achieves its aim of the thumping victory it is projecting. Factors like opposition candidates especially in Garhwal and Tehri constituencies and other factors pose a challenge to the party which is aiming to break all past records. In this scenario, the BJP is preparing to make PM Modi’s rally in Rishikesh on April 11 a resounding success. The party has claimed that people from across the State will throng to the PM’s rally in record numbers. On Tuesday, the BJP State president Mahendra Bhatt and other party leaders inspected the venue of the PM’s programme and held a meeting regarding the preparations.

In an informal interaction with the media regarding the PM’s rally, the BJP State media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan said that Bhatt and BJP State general secretary (Organisation) Ajaey Kumar inspected the venue and held a meeting with senior office bearers of the party regarding the arrangements. Chauhan claimed that there is considerable enthusiasm in Haridwar, Pauri, Tehri, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi and Dehradun for Modi’s rally, which is the second event to be addressed by the PM in the State for the Lok Sabha election. The party expects lakhs of people especially from the Garhwal region to attend the programme. “The enthusiasm of the public for Modi shows that like all across the nation, people in Uttarakhand have also decided to re-elect him for the third term. The discussion now is not about the BJP winning but about the party achieving its aim of securing more than 400 seats. The talk in Uttarakhand is about the BJP candidates winning the election by an unprecedented margin,” Chauhan said.

It is pertinent to mention here that according to observers,  though the BJP appears to be stronger, factors like disenchantment of its traditional voters due to selection of candidates and opposition candidates exacerbating this aspect, the party is relying more on Modi than on the individual candidates to secure a victory in the elections, as witnessed in past parliamentary and Assembly elections.