Srinagar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday claimed that people of Kashmir Valley are very enthusiastically waiting to receive Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that more than two lakh of them will turn up at a ‘mega rally’ he will be addressing in capital Srinagar later this week.
“The people of the Valley are very excited and eagerly waiting for the Prime Minister to come here. We expect more than two lakh people at the mega rally he is scheduled to address in Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium,” BJP’s J&K unit president Ravinder Raina told reporters here.
He added, “Their enthusiasm is actually an acknowledgement of the BJP government’s major development push for Jammu and Kashmir and the Prime Minister’s relentless pursuit that has led to the return of peace and normalcy to the Union Territory after decades of turmoil. He opened the coffers of the government to ensure economic longevity and prosperity of each class of people in J&K.”
During his brief visit to Srinagar on March 7, the Prime Minister will address a public rally in the City’s Bakshi Stadium. He will also virtually launch multiple developmental projects and interact with the beneficiaries of various public welfare schemes and programmes of the government on the occasion. This will be his first visit to the Kashmir Valley after the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution and split J&K up into two Union territories in August 2019.
The authorities had earlier chosen the lakeside Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) here for the Prime Minister’s rally and were busy in making arrangements for it including fixing footpath barricades along the stretch of Boulevard. But the venue was changed due to both logistic and security reasons even though the officials claimed that Bakshi Stadium has been chosen as the venue because a large number of people are expected to attend the PM's programme.
Mr. Modi had during a brief visit to Jammu on February 20 virtually launched multiple projects worth over Rs 32,500 crore for J&K and projects worth Rs 13,500 crore for other parts of the country.
Replying to questions, Mr. Raina said that in view of the growing love, compassion and support of the people of J&K, the BJP is hopeful of victory and, therefore, will field its candidates for all the five Lok Sabha seats of the UT. The BJP has in the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections issued on Saturday repeated Union minister of state Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore as its candidates from J&K’s Udhampur and Jammu constituencies, respectively. Mr. Raina said that the names of the party candidates for Anantnag-Rajouri, Srinagar and Baramulla seats will be finalised soon.
“We are hopeful of winning all the five seats of the Union Territory. The people will support the BJP wholeheartedly. Likewise, we don’t need to enter into any pre-poll alliance with any other party as far as the Assembly elections are concerned. We will contest on our own”, he said.
