This Article is From Oct 20, 2013

In Nitish Kumar's Patna, grand preparations for Narendra Modi show

In Nitish Kumar's Patna, grand preparations for Narendra Modi show

Narendra Modi during his visit to Chennai on Friday.

Patna: The BJP is pulling out all stops to make Narendra Modi's maiden political rally in Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's home turf on October 27 a mega success. Mr Kumar had ended his party's 17-year with the BJP after it announced Mr Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

State BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, said that the party had reserved 11 trains for the 'Hunkar rally' and would install a large dynamic screen as a backdrop on the stage at Patna's Gandhi Maidan to create a larger than life image of the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Unlike other places where replica of Red Fort and other monuments were created, the rally at Patna would instead have a 30-feet dynamic screen as background on the stage, Mr Modi said.

The LED screen would display slides showing famous historical places of the state like the Nalanda university, Bodh Gaya temple, Gol Ghar among others and portraits of great personalities.

The personalities whose portraits would be relayed include hero of 1857 revolt Veer Kuer Singh, first President of Independent India Rajendra Prasad and Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan "JP", all hailing from the state, Mr Modi said.

He said for a comprehensive coverage of the rally, the party had decided to press into service around 12 of its own cameramen for capturing bit-by-bit picture of the crowd and other memorable events.

"This has been decided because TV channels can put one cameraman for the event who can zoom their camera only on one side. So we have decided to capture pictures of the rally through lens of 12 video cameras," Mr Modi said.

"The video cassettes would be made available to the TV channels for their convenience," he said.

Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav said that for the first time linear sound system would be used in the state so that everybody could hear the speech clearly.

Bihar BJP president Mangal Pandey said that apart from 11 trains, more than 3,000 buses have been booked to bring people from various parts of the state to Patna for the rally.

BJP's 91 MLAs, 12 MPs and office bearers are touring the state to drum up huge support for the rally.

Mr Pandey said that senior party leaders are taking stock of arrangements on a daily basis.

Sushil Modi said there would be no chairs at the rally and people would have to sit on the ground.

A total of 30 LED screens would be installed in every nook and corner of the rally venue so that people sitting at a distance could also have a clear view of the stage.

Besides Narendra Modi, party president Rajnath Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, actor-politician and party MP from Patna Saheb, Shatrughan Sinha, and state leaders would participate in the rally.

The October 27 rally is being keenly watched as it would be the first time that Narendra Modi would attempt to storm Nitish Kumar's political bastion, kept off bounds for him for the last 17 years when JD(U) and BJP were partners in the NDA.

Narendra Modi's elevation to lead the party in next year's general elections had led to the rupture between the BJP and the JD(U) with the latter walking out of the NDA on June 16.

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