Cong says will hold bigger rally at same venue
BJP bastion, Hamirpur of Himachal Pradesh is all set become a battleground in run-up to 2014 lok Sabha polls with the Congress putting all its might to wrest the seat eluding it for the past 16 years.
The seat currently represented by Anurag Thakur, son of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, will be hosting the only rally in the State of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The rally would be held at Sujjanpur on February 16 and the party has started galvanising party workers in the State.
State BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti said that the party will try to mobilise over 2 lakh people from across the State for the rally. “After parliamentary constituency meetings of the party is finished, the party will put entire force to make the rally a success,” he added.
“like other States, Himachal Pradesh rally of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will also have some uniqueness, which will be charted out in few weeks,” added Satti. According to senior office-bearers of party, around 50,000 ex-servicemen will be mobilised to participate in the rally and for the
purpose a meeting of ex-servicemen is scheduled to be held on January 3-4.
In all likelihood, the BJP will try to capitalise on patriotism, nationalism tone at the behest of ex-servicemen, given the point that State has considerable number of men in defence and ex-servicemen and their contributions to the country will be highlighted.
According to Government records 195 brave soldiers of the State had laid their lives during the historic war against Pakistan in 1971.
The first Param Vir Chakra of the country was awarded to Major Somnath of Himachal Pradesh and out of total four Param Vir Chakras given for Kargil aggression; two have been bestowed on Himachali soldiers.
Total of 14 Himachali soldiers had been conferred with Maha Vir Chakra, 61 with Vir Chakra and till now 1140 soldiers of the State had sacrificed their lives for the cause of the country. Several retired Army majors having roots in Himachal Pradesh are also likely to participate in the rally.
On the other hand Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh whose Government celebrated its first anniversary at Hamirpur, said that Modi factor has always favoured the Congress and each time he campaigned in the State, Congress had come to power.
“let them (BJP) do a rally at Sujjanpur and we will be holding a much bigger rally at the same venue,” said Chief Minister, when
asked about the planned huge turnout of BJP.
Congress is also mulling option on the choice of candidate for Hamirpur seat and some sections are lobbying hard for Sujjanpur MlA Rajendra Rana an independent and Dhumal’s former aide, as party’s candidate against Bharatiya Janata Party’s sitting MP Anurag Thakur.
Rana is now associate MlA of Congress in Assembly and has showed his strength by getting record turnout of people from his constituency for Congress government rally on December 25 at Hamirpur. On getting some clue of being probable candidate of Congress, Rana has started holding rallies in his
constituency.