State units want more rallies,Modi spares five more days

Consequently,the party has got Modi to campaign for 15 days in these states as against 10 days planned earlier. Of the five additional days,a day each has been earmarked for campaigning in Chhattisgarh,Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan while Modi will be spending two more days in Delhi as against only one planned earlier. He was initially to campaign in Delhi only on November 30. However,a meeting of core group leaders looking after Delhi elections was learnt to have requested Modi to provide additional push to party’s campaign against Sheila Dikshit in the last leg of campaigning. Consequently,they have managed to get Modi to campaign on November 23 and December 1 after finishing his schedules elsewhere.

“Being a metropolitan city,the election meeting here could also be held in the evening which is not possible in other states which are predominantly rural. Modi is slated to campaign in the evening of November 23 after completing his rallies the same day in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly,he has agreed to campaign in the evening on December 1 after completing an engagement in Jammu,” confided a party leader.

In an apparent attempt to meet the demand from these states,party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,who is looking after the Central Election Management Coordination Centre that is coordinating campaigning for the elections,has also written to all these states suggesting them to accommodate “three to four rallies” on each day being spared by Modi. Initially,state units were asked to avoid more than two rallies on each of the 10 days Modi had spared.

Consequently,the state units have also been asked to prepare for Modi’s overnight stay,in case of need,which was not the case earlier. The party’s war room has instructed the state units to identify suitable places for Modi’s stay that also meets the requirements of his security.

While all other senior leaders have also been put into campaigning,actor-turned politicians Smriti Irani and Vinod Khanna have also been asked to campaign for at least two days in each of these four states. The sources said the schedule for Hema Malini has been fixed only for Chhattisgarh so far and her plans for campaigning in other states are still being worked out.