Varanasi: BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s seven-km journey that crawled through the surging frenzy and fawning crowd took nearly four hours to reach the party office, where the party icon did a symbolic “Ganga puja”. Playing out a seemingly planned and well-choreographed drama, earlier on Thursday top BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah and Ananth Kumar sat on dharna outside the BHU in protest against the EC’s “partisan” and “partial attitude”. Breathing fire, Mr Jaitley threatened to go on a “satyagraha” and lashed out at the EC, saying: “Men in constitutional offices need to be bolder. Timid men can dwarf high offices.”
The EC had denied permission for a Modi rally at Benia Bagh, citing security reasons. It did, however, permit prayers on the banks of the Ganga and a meeting with 150 citizens at a local hotel. However, the BJP said these programmes had to be cancelled as the permission was granted only at around 2 am Thursday. As the area around the BHU turned into a sea of saffron, the BJP leaders denied the charge that they were turning Mr Modi’s drive from the BHU to the party headquarters into a roadshow. “It is the supporters of Mr Modi who are pouring onto the streets. We have not invited anyone,” said Mr Shah.
Earlier, speaking at Rohinia, a bastion of its ally Apna Dal, Mr Modi began by playing the secular card. His rally was attended by 103-year-old Col Nizamuddin of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s INA. Training his guns at the Congress’ “ma-bete ki sarkar (mother-son government)” and the SP’s “baap-bete ki sarkar (father-son government)”, Mr Modi said they had “troubled me for years, threatened to send me to jail, yet Modi is alive and found a place in the hearts of people”. Claiming that the EC’s ban was a “conspiracy” by the Congress, he said: “When people are all set to defeat you, the EC cannot make you win. Modi’s silence is more dangerous than his speeches,” he said, acusing the Congress and the EC of trying to deprive him of his “democratic rights” to hold rallies.
