PM Modi, Amit Shah set to address BJP's mega rally in Bhopal today

Bhopal, Sep 25: Prime minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah will address a mega congregation of party workers billed as the 'largest congregation of political workers' in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.

BJP president Amit Shah will also speak at the event, 'Karyakarta Mahakumbh' (grand assembly of party workers), being held on the occasion of birth anniversary of Hindutva icon and Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) co-founder Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya.

The venue has been named as "Atal Mahakumbh Parisar" in memory of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away in New Delhi in August.

Modi will arrive at the Bhopal airport around noon and will reach the venue in a helicopter along with other BJP leaders to avoid inconvenience to people, party leaders said. The prime minister will remain in the state capital for nearly three hours, they said.

BJP workers from 65,000 polling booths spread across the 230 Assembly seats in the state will take part in the programme, said Rajnish Agrawal, another state BJP spokesman. An exhibition hall named after BJP leader and former Union minister, late Anil Madhav Dave, has also been set up at the rally site.

"It will showcase the journey and works of BJP stalwarts, including Vajpayee, Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan," Agrawal said.

In the exhibition, BJP and BJS stalwarts Upadhyaya, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Vajpayee, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia and Kushabhau Thakre - have been depicted as the five strong pillars of the BJP, he said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), established in 1980, is the successor party of the BJS.

The party has booked nine special trains from different parts of the state to bring BJP workers for the event, Agrawal said. Police have made elaborate security arrangements for the high-profile event and also Modi's visit.

"We have made adequate security arrangements for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday by deploying nearly 6,000-strong force, including 4,000 personnel from the central and reserve forces," Inspector General (IG) Bhopal Jaideep Prasad told PTI.

Nearly 22 senior IPS officers have been deployed to coordinate security details, he said. Along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram will also go to polls by the year-end.

Modi and Shah, two star poll campaigners of the BJP, will be in Bhopal days after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi visited the state capital. Gandhi held a roadshow and later addressed Congress workers and office-bearers during his September 17 visit.

Both the national parties are in poll campaign mode in the state, where the BJP is in power since 2003. While the saffron outfit will seek a fourth straight term in office in the year-end elections, the Congress will look to wrest power from the BJP in a state which was once its stronghold.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)