PATNA: The 60-acre historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna has turned into a fortress for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sankalp Rally on March 3 —his first since the October 27 Hunkar Rally of 2013 as a PM candidate, which an Indian Mujaheedin sleeper cell bombed, killing six and injuring three scores.
The state is not leaving anything to chance this time. PM Modi with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar will open the Lok Sabha campaign in Bihar on the back of the Pulwama suicide bombing and a standing Jaish-e-Mohammad threat. Director General of Police, Gupteshwar Pandey said, “Bihar Police will have foolproof security arrangements leaving nothing to chance”.
Anticipating some 3 to 5 lakh footfalls, police has sanitized the Maidan, made famous by late Jayaprakash Narayan’s Total Revolution rally of 1976, when a record 10 lakh attended. Entry to the ground is already banned, jammers installed and bomb disposal and sniffer dog squads on round the clock duty with machine gun nests at vantage positions. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had addressed his Jan-Akansha Rally at the same venue last month.
The politics is being played right too. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari unveiled a `9000+ crore roads development package last week to add to Modi’s `33,000 crore package for urban development and rejuvenation on February 17.
“In Bihar politics, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad is considered the king of rallies, organizing seven between 1995-2017 but BJP state President Nityanand Rai said, “We will bust this myth. The NDA’s Sankalp Rally would be the mother of all rallies after JP’s”. Patna IG, Sunil Kumar said 4,000 cops, 400 magistrates, dozens of sniffer dog and bomb detection squads have been deputed at the Maidan which can accommodate 9.5 lakh people.