PATNA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a 'sankalp' rally in Patna on Sunday to begin the National Democratic Alliance's campaign for the Lok Sabha election in Bihar. PM Modi will share the dais with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union minister Ramvilas Paswan at the Gandhi Maidan. The BJP is expecting not less than five lakh people to attend the rally.
With the three top leaders of the NDA - PM Modi, Nitish and Paswan - together on the stage, the alliance will blow the bugle for the upcoming general election.
BJP General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav said that the NDA rally is aimed at taking a resolve to make a new and secure India under the leadership of Modi. "The NDA's Sankalp rally is being organised to take a resolve to make a new, strong, prosperous, safe and secured India," he said.
Yadav, who is BJP's Bihar in-charge, claimed that the public meeting would be the biggest so far at the Gandhi Maidan in terms of the gathering of people that is expected to be there.
The PM is also expected to announce some announcements and projects for Bihar at the rally.
Workers and leaders of all the three NDA constituents - BJP, Janata Dal United (JDU) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) have been putting their best foot forward to make the rally a grand success. With a total of 40 Parliamentary seats, Bihar holds key importance in the election.
This would be the first occasion in nine years when PM Modi would share the stage with Nitish at a political function. Nitish, who heads the JDU, had snapped his 17-year-old ties with the BJP in 2013 following differences with it over projection of Modi. He, however, returned to the NDA in 2017.
Modi, who was then the Gujarat Chief Minister, had burst into the political scene in Bihar with aplomb and delivered a rousing hour-long speech in October 2013 unmoved by the bombs which kept exploding at the Gandhi Maidan during his address. Riding on the wave he had created, the BJP went on to win 22 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, its best-ever electoral performance.
