The stage is set for a super Sunday as three major political parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party — will show their strength at their rallies in lucknow, Allahabad, and Kanpur respectively.
The administrations of these three districts have also geared up to maintain law and order during the rallies. While the BJP is holding Vijay Shankhanaad rally at lucknow, the SP is organising Desh Bachao, Desh Banao rally at Allahabad, and the AAP Jhado lagao rally in Kanpur.
With the weather taking swift turns, all the three political parties prayed to the rain god to spare their rallies from being washed away. Heavy showers on Friday night had already made their jobs tough but a sunny Saturday afternoon brought some cheers among the leaders of these parties.
The BJP has already got a shot in the arm when former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh announced his return to the BJP fold and retired Army chief VK Singh joining the party in New Delhi on the eve of the rally.
Speculation is also rife that some senior leaders of some prominent political groups, including Congress MP Jagdambika Pal, may appear on the dais at the BJP rally on Sunday to announce their joining the party.
To make the rally a big success, BJP in-charge of party affairs in UP, Amit Shah, and State president laxmikant Bajpai took several rounds of the Ramabai rally ground to review final arrangements as well as to ensure that maximum people reached the venue. The party has booked 29 special trains besides hiring 4,500 buses, 15,000 four-wheelers to ferry the supporters to the venue to make its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally a historic one. About 50,000 party workers would be arriving on their two-wheelers accompanied with supporters, Bajpai said.
In Allahabad, senior leader of the SP, Ujjwal Raman Singh, who holds the rank of Cabinet Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav Government, is camping there to ensure a crowd that overshadows the one at the BJP rally in lucknow.
SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and other senior leaders would address the rally in Allahabad. Faced with the challenge of assembling a good crowd for the AAP, particularly with its limited resources, party chief Arvind Kejriwal has decided to launch road shows from Ghaziabad on Saturday. He will reach Kanpur on Sunday to address the rally.
The former Chief Minister of Delhi kick-started his three-day road show from Kaushambi office in Ghaziabad district. His convoy will cover 15 lok Sabha seats in the State spread over Ghaziabad, Hapur, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur and Hardoi districts. Beside Kejriwal, party’s senior leaders Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai and Sanjay Singh are also accompanying Kejriwal in the road shows.
“We will try to tell the people that the AAP wants to get the people rid of dynastic, caste-based and corrupt governance and bring a fresh air of development,” Kejriwal said while addressing people at a road show.
During his three-day campaign in the State, Kejriwal will address a rally in Kanpur on Sunday, the second after the one in Rohtak in Haryana last week, as part of the party’s national campaign ahead of the lok Sabha election.