GU convention centre readies to play host

Bureaucrats from Chief Secretary A K Joti to Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra,and senior police officers from DGP Chittranjan Singh to Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police Sudhir Sinha — accompanied by information department officials — were holding a brainstorming session at the ground zero till late Wednesday evening.

They were seen inspecting every nook and corner of the sprawling venue and discussing minutest of details.

Sources close to Modi said,“It will be convenient for the supporters to reach the venue. The MLAs and district BJP leaders have been asked to bring at least 10,000 people from each district to meet the target of gathering three to four lakh people over the three days.”

Also,Modi is learnt to have instructed senior officials and all district party leaders ensure presence of leaders of different religions.

Earlier in the day,senior BJP leaders thronged the venue and hailed the decision,both of the Supreme Court on the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre and that of Modi on fast.

They,however,did not say anything on how they were kept in the dark till the last moment and how an eleventh hour meeting was called to work out tasks to be assigned to them before and during the fast period.

Mood at the state BJP office in Khanpur remained laid back with no flurry of activities or presence of any party leader. A party worker said that all workers were with the CM on the fast even as they might not be joining him directly.

According to sources,many senior national BJP leaders,including L K Advani,Arun Jaitley and Smriti Irani,are likely to attend the event. They said that national BJP president Nitin Gadkari would not attend on health grounds while Opposition Leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj would be out of the country on those days.

It may be recalled that Modi had sat on a 51-hour fast at the same venue in 2005 over the Narmada dam’s height issue.