Maharashtra ‘Modified’

Over 6 lakh join ‘Mahagarjana Rally’ in Mumbai

Pramod Kumar from Mumbai

Mumbai witnessed two seas at a time on December 22. One, the usual Arabian Sea and the second People’s Sea (jansamudra) turned to BJP’s Mahagarjana Rally organised at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). The ‘people’s sea’ clearly indicated that Maharashtra is fast moving towards a ‘sea change’. If this huge gathering is turned into votes, the state assembly will see a full majority BJP government and also majority Lok Sabha seats into BJP’s account.

Old timers recall that Mumbai never witnessed such a huge gathering in any political rally, not even during the rallies of Pandit Nehru or Jaiprakash Narayan. The entire city seemed to be ‘Modified’. About six lakh people, 80 per cent of whom were between 25 to 35 years (some wearing the special T shirts with a slogan ‘Modify India, Unify India’, turned to the Complex to listen to Narendra Modi, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. About one lakh people, who came from different parts of Maharashtra through trains or buses, had reached the venue even before the sunrise.

Entire BKC was filled with large billboards of Narendra Modi and other leaders. Some hoarding also carried the pictures of Shiv Sena founder the late Bal Thackeray and present chief Udhav Thackeray. The makeshift town was named after Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya. The party had booked 21 long-distance trains, about 4000 buses and private vehicles to transport people to and fro the rally. About 400 buses were hired from the Best.

Special VVIP passes were distributed to around 140 consulates, diplomatic corps and even 10,000 tea-vendors. However, in view of the strong sentiments in the incident concerning Indian diplomat Devyani Khboragade and the treatment meted to her the invitation extended to the US Consulate officials in Mumbai was cancelled at the last minute.

The party specially arranged a dial-a-pick-up service for Mumbaikars desiring to attend the rally. Thousands of party workers were deployed to prepare 8 lakh delicious packets of Gujarati snack ‘Thepla-achar’. Besides Shri Modi, BJP president Rajnath Singh, former president Nitin Gadkari, senior leaders like Gopinath Munde, state party chief Devendra Fadnavis, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Vinod Tawde also addressed the rally.

Modi began his speech in Marathi amidst cheers by the audience for more than a minute.  He compared the bad governance of Congress with diabetes, which makes the entire body weak. He hoped that Mahara-shtra would be in the forefront of ensuring a Congress-free India. Modi attacked the Centre for its plans to scrap the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. He said while the government was trying to dismantle a piece of history, the Gujarat government wanted to construct a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel out of iron pieces collected from farmers.

BJP president Rajnath Singh appealed to the people of Maharashtra to give at least 46 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats to BJP. Shri Nitin Gadkari said Modi has the potential to change the destiny of the nation.

Modi gave a new slogan ‘Vote for India’ at the rally. He appealed to the people not to vote for a party but for the country. “The country is supreme… So, I say, Vote for India to solve the problems,” he said. He said:

For liberation from dynasty rule

For eradication of corruption

For liberation from bad governance

For unity of Bharat

For building a super power India

For politics of good governance

For politics of development

For security of the country

For security of every citizen

For houses to all

For food to eat

For medicines to sick

For welfare of deprived

For reforms in education

For getting employment

For dignity of women

For protection of farmers

For self reliance

For a powerful Bharat

For a prosperous nation

For progressive Bharat

Vote for India!

Why only tea vendors, everyone can be VIP in India: Modi

Over 10,000 tea vendors of Mumbai became VIPs, when the Mumbai unit of BJP served them VIP passes for the rally. Special arrangements were made for them to sit near the dais. Whenever there was any mention to the tea vendors (as Narendra Modi sold tea in his childhood), these vendors jumped with joy shouting Modi, Modi, Modi…

Modi also mentioned in his speech why only the tea vendors, every deprived person of the country would be a VIP in coming days. “If Barack Obama can sell ice cream before becoming US President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam can sell newspapers before becoming President of India and Abraham Lincoln worked as woodcutter in his childhood, what if Modi sold tea before becoming Prime Minister of India,” asked BJP president Shri Rajnath Singh. It is to be noted that some Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders had recently ridiculed that Modi was a tea vendor and a tea vendor cannot become Prime Minister. On it Modi commented, ‘Desh bhechne walo se chai bechne wale achche hote hain’. This created a sense of pride amongst the tea vendors.

US finds security threat in the rally

Amidst the reports of US Consulate in Mumbai objecting to the organisation of the rally at BKC claiming it is too close to the Consulate, the Mumbai police and other agencies had made elaborate security arrangements for the mega rally with over 3,000 men, Quick Response Teams, bomb and dog squads at and around the venue. A total of 25 policemen, trained by Israel’s security forces to tackle suicide bombers, were deployed. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle too was used to give the rally more security.

How IT powered the rally

When Modi stepped up the magnificent stage, a highly energetic documentary ‘Veeram Namo Nayakam’ with thrilling music and visuals was played. The use of IT was visible at every step. There were three big platforms equipped with magnificent 3D screens so that everyone can see the leaders on the dais.

Mumbai BJP went in for an aggressive social media strategy for the Rally. This included live-tweeting and live-streaming of videos of the rally, and a separate enclosure for around 25,000 people, who had registered online apart from pressing into service around 1000 ‘apolitical’ volunteers supporting Modi for the country’s top post. It is for the first time that majority of those who registered online were seen on the ground also. “Now we have full contact details about these people, which will enable us to reach to them during the elections,” said Jiten Gajaria of BJP’s social media cell. The party had set up 12 tables from where the volunteers could tweet minute-by-minute updates. Since November, the party has been extensively using SMSes, emails, Twitter and Facebook to garner support for the rally. The party adopted an interesting method to calculate the people attending the rally. It announced a mobile number requesting people to give a missed call. In a short duration lakhs of people registered themselves.