Rae Bareli abuzz ahead of PM’S Sunday visit

LUCKNOW: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Rae Bareli on Sunday for the launch of the modern rail coaches designed in the rail coach factory there, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would look to use the occasion to rev up the political temperature in this Congress bastion.

This would be Modi’s second visit to Rae Bareli, the first being in 1999 when as the party general secretary he had coordinated a public meeting in support of Congress rebel turned BJP candidate Arun Nehru.

In April this year, BJP chief Amit Shah had visited this constituency along with chief minister Yogi Adityanath for a public rally, described as BJP’S biggest political rally till then, in Rae Bareli.

For Modi’s Sunday public meeting, the BJP is looking to overtake Shah’s rally by some distance, targeting a turnout of over one lakh, according to the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey.

“Our target is two lakh,” says Ajay Agarwal, a Supreme Court lawyer who contested on BJP ticket from here against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in 2014. BJP leaders say a rally by Modi in Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency would have its own meaning, since barring a few exceptions, the party’s association with this Congress bastion has largely been negligible.

“In 1999 the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had turned up to campaign for Congress rebel Arun Nehru who was made a BJP candidate from Rae Bareli. The meeting was coordinated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was then the party general secretary,” recalls Agarwal. BJP leader Vinay Katiyar, who was made to contest from Rae Bareli against Sonia Gandhi in 2006, remembers party leaders Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj coming to campaign for him.

The Congress, meanwhile, has welcomed the Prime Minister’s visit.

“Modi is free to visit anywhere, but let’s get one thing clear, for Congress Amethi and Rae Bareli are like an extended family,” said Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh.

“The BJP has conspired to scuttle development projects initiated by the Congress. So the people are watching BJP’S dirty play and would surely respond,” added Singh.