BJP begins collecting iron for Patel statue

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP hopes to impress party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi with a huge quantity of iron for installing the statue of India’s iron Man Sardar Vallabhai Patel in Gujarat.

Modi’s ambitious project of raising a 182-meter tall statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel in the middle of a water body 3 km downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam falls in an eco-sensitive zone with the Shoo­planeshwar and Dhumkal sloth bear sanctuaries in close vicinity. And come rain or shine, party members would tour the state hectically and collect iron from farmers and public.

Interestingly, the saffron party would perform gopuja at certain locations after making substantial collection of scrap iron in certain centres in the state before being dispatched to Gujarat.

“The work to collect iron from farmers will begin from Dec.6 and it will go on till Jan.12, 2014. The collected material will be brought to Ch­ennai and sent to Gujarat after Jan.26,” says party president Pon Ra­dh­ak­r­ishnan.

Meanwhile, the party has readied several hundreds of kits to be distributed to the party leaders and members undertaking the campaign: “Veeduthorum Modi, Ullamthorum Tha­ma­rai” (Modi in every household & lotus in every heart) across the state.

The kit contains about ten items including Lotus stickers and pamphlets to be distributed to the voters.The campaign strategy is likely to be reoriented based on the results of the Assembly polls in the north. “We stand to gain if the poll verdict is in favour of the BJP in those states…this would lend more credibility to our campaign,” a senior leader said.