TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: “One who is serious in supporting Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, will attend his rally,” Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said, while announcing that he would make door-to-door visits to invite people to Modi rally scheduled on January 12.
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Modi’s meeting which will be attended by party President Rajnath Singh, will set the tone for the party’s campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. The ‘Vijay Sankalp’ rally is expected to witness a crowd of over one lakh people.
Addressing a press conference, Parrikar, who heads the organising committee for the public rally, said that he and party leaders including MP Sripad Naik would be visiting each household to invite people to the rally.
Quaintly, Parrikar stated that the party would collect Rs 5 from those attending the rally. “When a person pays to attend the rally it indicates that he has a sence of belonging towards it. One who is serious about Narendra Modi as next prime minister will attend the rally,” he said adding that the money collected would go into meeting the expenses for the rally.
“I myself will be going around in 16 to 17 constituencies, including Panjim, inviting people,” the chief minister added.
Modi is likely to dwell on local issues in his speech, which Parrikar said the party organisation would brief him about but finally he would decide what to highlight.
BJP has already informally announced the candidature of sitting MP Sripad Naik for North Goa Parliamentary seat and party’s state general secretary Narendra Sawaikar for South Goa.
Parrikar said that the formal announcement of candidates would be done only after party’s parliamentary board clears the names.
Parrikar said that nearly 500 to 600 private and KTC buses had been hired for ferrying people for the rally which will take place at Merces bypass, which will be his second public meeting in Goa. First meeting was in June, 2013 soon after he was announced as chairman of the BJP election committee.
