With barely a week left for the ‘Bharata Gellisi’ rally featuring the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at the Palace Grounds on November 17, the party’s corporators in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been roped in for preparations.
Of the 198 corporators, 112 are from the BJP. Apart from these, there are also 20 nominated corporators from the BJP. The party leaders have formed 28 teams of corporators to prepare for the rally with each team having two to five civic representatives.
These teams have been put in charge of various responsibilities like health, food, stage arrangements and transport and parking.
Furthermore, each corporator has been assigned a target of selling at least 2,000 tickets for the rally.
Former Deputy Mayor S Harish, who is also corporator from Nagapura ward, told Express they had sold more than 5,000 tickets for the rally since Wednesday.
“People are showing interest and buying tickets. It is not like we are reaching out to people, but they are coming voluntarily to my house,” he declared, proudly.
Harish is part of a team of corporators responsible for supplying food for the nearly three lakh people expected at the rally.
The team includes Ashwathnarayana Gowda, who is ruling party leader in the BBMP and Kodigehalli ward representative.
Dr M S Shivaprasad, Aramane Nagar corporator, will be putting his experience as an associate professor of orthopaedics and joint replacement surgeon at M S Ramiah Group of Hospitals to good use. “I am overall in-charge of health and will look after health of dignitaries. We are geared up with team of 20 doctors and four ambulances in case of an emergency. Doctors from M S Ramaiah will be with us,” he said.
When asked whether the ‘rally responsibilities’ hampered his regular work, Shivaprasad quipped the Palace Grounds fell under his ward and he would be available to the public all the time. Sunkenahalli corporator P N Sadashiva is part of the team responsible for seating arrangements at the stage and the grounds. Sadashiva said that there will be three stages, including the main stage.
“Modi will speak at the main stage, which seats 11. There will be two stages on either side of the main stage for MLAs and other invitees. This apart, we are making seating arrangements for 2 lakh people, though many more are expected,” he said.
More than 20,000 vehicles, including 6,000 buses, 10,000 four wheelers and the rest being two-wheelers are expected for the rally, according to Yediyur ward corporator N R Ramesh, who is part of the team looking after transport and parking. “But we have made arrangement for 25,000 vehicles.”
“We have made parking arrangements at five locations in Palace Grounds and no parking fee will be charged,” he added.
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