MUMBAI: More than the elections, the party’s focus is on building up and showing the strength to reassure its workers, state BJP president Raosaheb Danve-Patil said here on Wendesday, ahead of the massive rally in presence of national party president Amit Shah.
“The party was formed here in Mumbai 38 years ago. We want t project the gigantic form it has adopted now before the people of the city where it was formed,” Danve-Patil said while addressing media ahead of the meet on Friday, April 6.
“More than 3 lakh BJP workers that are expected to come to Mumbai on Friday for Shah’s rally include over 80,000 booth-heads, district heads of 19 wings and 7 fronts of the party, 5000 Sarpanch (Village heads) and Corporators and people’s representatives from 12 Zilla Parishads, 13 Municipal Corporations and 72 Municipal Councils. They would come here in 28 special trains and 300-odd buses and private vehicles,” Danve-Patil said.
The MMRDA ground at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) will have 3 stages, 7 pendals, 5 parking lots and two tents for party workers who would need a night stay, he added.
Shah is scheduled to arrive in the city on Thursday evening. He would be brought to BKC from Airport in a procession. Mumbai BJP’s youth wing activists would lead a bike-rally. Upon reaching BKC he will lead a meeting of state BJP’s core committee. On Friday afternoon, he would address the rally and in the evening attend a meeting of the BJP MPs, MLAs and MLCs from Maharashtra at the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).
Danve-Patil said that every assembly constituency has 300 to 325 booths and since the 2014 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls, the party has made its presence in all booths.
“We would have the booth-level workers coming here...they are the people on the ground...when they come here they would see 'viraat-swarup' (grand) of the party,” said Danve-Patil, who was accompanied by Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar, who is overseeing all the arrangements.
Asked whether they had invited Shiv Sena leaders for the meeting Danve-Patil said: “It is an event of the BJP and no other party has been invited.”
Asked about the status of Narayan Rane vis-a-vis BJP and whether he has been invited, he said: “He is from a different party (Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha) but he is a part of NDA.”