Having felt the heat with the hectic electioneering by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Himachal Pradesh BJP has requested its Central leadership, seeking more rallies of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to improve the prospects of party candidates in the lok Sabha polls, to be held on May 7 in the State.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had in the past one month held more than 60 rallies in different parts of the State, besides organising over 75 Nukkad Sabhas. Such is the pace of 78-year-old Chief Minister that he is holding four to five rallies in a single day and around dozen Nukkad Sabhas to woo the voters.
Having been outsmarted by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in terms of rallies and people connect programmes, BJP has now made a frantic call to the central leadership to sanction more rallies of Modi and other central leaders like former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Bollywood stars to better the prospects of party candidates.
The party spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said that they have sent the requisition of rallies to central leadership and they have conveyed that after the sixth phase of polling on April 24, the proposal of State unit will be considered.
He added that State unit of the party have requested the central leadership to sanction more rallies of Modi in three other constituency, including Kangra from where party veteran Shanta Kumar is contesting, Solan falling in Shimla parliamentary constituency and at Mandi parliamentary constituency to galvanise the party workers.
Till now, only one rally of Narendra Modi was held at Sujanpur in the month of February, which boosted the morale of party workers with record turnout. BJP in the state is looking for similar turnouts and mobilisation in other rallies of its prime ministerial candidate.
“So far rallies of former national president of the party Nitin Gadkari have been finalised and on April 29, his first rally will be held at Manali at 11 am and second rally will be held at Majra of Nahan at around 3.30 pm,” added Dutt.
He added that Sirmaur unit have requested for the rally of Bollywood stars like Smriti Irani, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna or other star campaigners. Areas bordering Punjab, especially in Bilaspur and Una falling under Hamirpur parliamentary constituency have requested the leadership to sanction rallies of Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Kullu unit of the party falling under Mandi parliamentary constituency have requested the leadership for a rally of senior party leader Sushma Swaraj. “We have been assured by the central leadership that after the sixth phase of voting is over in several States, rallies of central leaders including that of Modi will be held in the State,” added Dutt.