Narendra Modi voices ‘winds of change’; poor crowd management mars Mumbai rally

Mumbai: Identifying the BJP with India, PM candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday asked people to 'Vote for India' in the coming general election if they wanted to end dynastic politics, corruption, price rise, poverty, politics of divide, misgovernance and lack of development.

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Addressing the 'Mahagarjana Rally' here, he blamed the Congress for the nation’s ills, saying it was following colonial-era 'divide and rule' policies and 'appeasement' politics.

“Congress mukt bharat is the only solution to all problems faced by this country,” Modi said to huge applause at the rally, which was attended by around three lakh people, besides 10,000 tea vendors.

Addressing the 'special invitees', he said, “I was reading that tea vendors have been given special pass. The winds of change have begun. In the days to come, the common man is going to become a VIP.” Modi was a tea vendor in his youth.

He also dared the Congress to do whatever it could to create trouble for him, saying: “Modi desh wasion ke dil mein jagah bana chuka hai.” His comments were seen as a challenge to the Congress to organise such a massive rally in country’s business capital.

In an apparent reference to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who had addressed Ficci on Saturday, Modi said while the Congress is itself deep in corruption, its leaders pretended they were making an effort to end it.

Citing Adarsh, Modi said 'while Congress leaders talked of corruption in Delhi, they saved ministers involved in the scam'. He did not, however, refer to Gandhi by name. He said 'minorityism and communalism' were the Congress’ tradition.

Next: Poor crowd management mars rally

Poor crowd management mars rally

Vivek Bhavsar/DC

Mumbai: Narendra Modi’s rally at Bandra-Kurla Complex after the victory in four state Assembly elections proved successful in drawing massive crowds. However, the organisers failed to manage the crowds.

The crowd was gathered from even far-flung Gondia and Gadchiroli districts. But people who reached as early as 9 am, did not even get drinking water. The food packets which included theplas and pickle was handed out only at 3.30 pm after Modi’s speech was over.

Tea and poha was available up to 9 am and after that the distribution was stopped. The 500 BEST drivers and conductors, who were on duty from 3 am, were even not allowed to carry a water bottle inside the rally venue. One of the drivers on condition of anonymity complained that they didn’t get tea and breakfast.

The worst condition was of those who boarded from Gondia. Vinod Agrawal said, “Though we are from Gondia district, our village is located near Chhattisgargh border. We left home on Friday morning, took a halt at Gondia and left on Saturday morning at 10 am. We were told that we would get food, so we didn’t carry food from home.”

He said, “We got dinner at Gondia and after that only glucose biscuits and tea was provided once in the 36-hour journey,” he said. Randas Bagde and Rameshwar Meshram, other attendees at the rally, concurred with Agrawal.

Another group leader from the same district, Taj Kureshi, targeted the party leaders for not attending them. He said, “As BJP workers, we attended the rally, but spent from our pocket. Our leaders gave false assurances. They must understand that we are travelling for almost five days. How can we sustain it?” he asked.

Giridhar Kadugar from Gadchiroli district said, “BJP MP Hansraj Ahir took care of us till Ballarpur from our village. After that, we were left to our fate. We didn’t get any food in the Naxal belt. Here in Mumbai, we faced the same problem.”

The drinking water tanker was available at the end of the ground and was thus inaccessible for the people. Thousands of thirsty people were found wandering around the MMRDA internal roads searching for water instead of listening to the speech of the BJP leader.

Taking advantage of the situation, some boys from Bharatnagar sold water bottles for Rs 20 each. Boxes of bottles were stacked by the BJP workers at the parking ground but the rally attendees were not allowed to have them as the BJP workers claimed they were for “BJP leaders only”.