In the poll-bound Chhattisgarh city of Bilaspur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the closing ceremony of two of the BJP’s “Parivartan Yatras,” according to a party leader. In the past three months, PM Modi has made three trips to the Congress-ruled state, where the end-of-year assembly elections are scheduled.
According to state BJP head Arun Sao, the prime minister would speak at the ‘Parivartan Mahasankalp’ rally, the conclusion of two Parivartan Yatras, at the Science College grounds here at 2 o’clock on Saturday.
According to him, the second Parivartan Yatra was launched from Jashpur in north Chhattisgarh on September 15 while the first one left Dantewada in south Chhattisgarh on September 12.
Before reaching their conclusion in Bilaspur, both yatras covered a distance of more than 3,000 km over 87 assembly segments (out of the total 90), he claimed, and included 83 ‘Swagat Sabhas’ (welcome gatherings), four roadshows, and several public meetings.
The Maoist-affected districts of Bijapur, Sukma, and Antagarh are not on the schedule, although residents from these districts participated in the yatra when it went through their neighboring districts.
The party officials and employees’ spirits were unaffected by the rain, he claimed, and they joyfully took part in the two yatras, which attracted a sizable crowd.
The two yatras, in which almost 50 lakh people participated, turned the wave of change into a storm, according to Sao, who expressed confidence that the Congress would lose the 2019 elections.
The program’s location has been heavily fortified with security, according to the police. There will be a deployment of 1,500 security personnel from the police, Special Protection Group (SPG), Chhattisgarh Armed Forces, National Security Guard, and Home Guard.
A three-kilometer radius around the city has been designated a “no-flying zone” in anticipation of the PM’s arrival, and anti-drone guns have also been deployed, a police official said.
The BJP, which had been in power for 15 years under Raman Singh, suffered a crushing defeat in the 2018 assembly elections at the hands of the Congress. The BJP has only won 15 of the 68 constituencies won by the Congress. There are presently 71 seats in the Congress.
Even though the Election Commission of India (ECI) has yet to finalize the timetable for the forthcoming assembly elections, scheduled for later this year, the saffron party revealed its first list of candidates for 21 seats last month that it had lost to the Congress in the last elections.
