The saffron Czar throws down the gauntlet challenging the Congress in Sheila Dikshit’s Delhi, addressing one of the biggest, grandest and most expensive hi-tech rallies the BJP has ever held in the capital. Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial face, Gujarat’s four-time chief minister and ace polariser both inside and outside the Sangh Parivar brings his show to the town; a city where the BJP has no face to put forward to the electorate and its popular Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, whose charisma remains unalloyed, vies for a fourth term.
In the absence of a chief ministerial candidate, the BJP is exploiting ‘Modi Magic’ to try facilitate its victory. The saffron party hopes that its rallying cry – ‘Badlenge Dilli, Badlenge Bharat’ (Change Delhi, Change India) – would be the note on which Modi would ride to power in 2014; and more immediately, the BJP would capture the Delhi Assembly.
It is redux 1982. Rajiv Gandhi became the face of the Congress in Delhi after successfully changing the face of sleepy Delhi with the Asian Games and winning the Metropolitan Council elections with a 47.5 percentage of votes polled.
If Modi’s spectacular rally on Sunday - with its multi tiered stages, Big Brother holograms, gigantic LED screens projecting his familiar aggressive visage with its piercing eyes shining with ideological fervour behind thick glasses and state of the art loudspeakers to carry his message to the ruling party and family that dominates Indraprastha - is able to turn the BJP’s fortunes around in Delhi, the Ground Zero of Indian politics, he hopes it may take him just a bit closer to the heavily protected 7 Race Course Road complex in leafy Lutyens Delhi.
To this end the party has pulled no stops and has opened its purse strings and unleashed his cadres to make Delhi Modi’s city for one sunny Sunday. From the time he alights at around 11.30 from his government charter plane at Palam airport on Sunday after the 1 hour 25 minute flight from Ahmedabad, board a chopper to the helipad at Rohini Sector 32 and then drive to the 20,000 sq feet venue at Japanese Park Rohini, a huge cordon of 108 security personnel will guard one of the most protected men in India.
It would have all the trappings of a Roman triumph: his ride to the venue would be along a line of Delhi police commandos, officers and policemen posted along the route on both sides of the road. 36 NSG commandos will form a cordon around the leader who would be driving his steel grey Scorpio with its Gujarat number plates.
Unlike BJP’s Bhopal rally on September 25 held in support of poll bound Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan where the entire party pantheon was present, in Delhi, Modi would be the lone star speaker, apart from the hosts’ state president Vijay Goel, the leader of Opposition in the state assembly VK Malhotra and former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who is the election in-charge of the state.
Predictably, senior BJP leaders downplay the absence of senior party leaders, like LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, from the venue. “All leaders need not be present at the rally. At the rally held in Tiruchy or Rewari, Modi was the main speaker. We would be using senior leaders for future rallies,” a senior party leader said. Advani is in Delhi, while three other senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj would be returning from Hyderabad, Rajnath from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, and Arun Jaitley in Guwahati, Assam on Sunday. Behind the main stage stand two giant screens which will reflect the leader’s expressions and gestures in clear detail. 20 LED screens within the grounds will duplicate the same.
“These 20 LED screens will ensure that those attending the rally get a close view of the leaders on the stage while they are speaking,” said Goel. 200 more LED screens are installed across the city at various venues to carry the Modi mantra and the rally’s splendour visually.
The BJP is determined not to go the Bhopal way. There, the speeches of leaders lost clarity because of a poor sound system. Goel assured that this time their words would be heard perfectly as state of the art “Line Array” sound systems are being used.
These would ensure that every word spoken from the stage is delivered in perfectly audible form to the audience at the venue and in the city. The publicity and high tech part of the rally has been aptly named Operation Blitzkrieg.