Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to the state has thrown the J&K unit of the BJP into a tizzy.
At the BJP’s Raj Bagh party office, which is a stone’s throw away from the moderate Hurriyat headquarters, top leaders of the party can be seen dropping by frequently and then going out to attend meetings all across the Kashmir valley. The BJP cadres, right from top party leaders to ground-level workers, are making all-out efforts to pull crowds to Modi’s Srinagar rally.
“We all are mobilising people for the rally. In charge J&K affairs and MP Avinash Rai Khanna is in Baramulla holding meetings. Health Minister Lal Singh is holding a meeting at Ganderbal. From our side, we have kept a target of bringing 20,000 people.
In addition, PDP workers and people in general too will come,” state general secretary Ashok Koul said.
Though drawing crowds for the Prime Minister’s rally may not be a big issue elsewhere, Modi’s last Kashmir rally held at the Sher-e-Kashmir stadium in December 2014 had failed to attract large crowds.
Even as BJP state president Ramesh Arora admitted that the BJP had a weaker base in the Valley as compared to the PDP, he said: “It will be a historic visit.”
BJP state president and MP Jugal Kishore, who also took stock of the arrangements, said people in the Valley were “eagerly waiting” to participate in the rally and the party was worried that the stadium area “would not be sufficient to host the huge gathering”.
