Modi's rally ends up as a lacklustre event

Ajmer: Saturday's 'Vijay Sankalp Sabha', Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first election rally in the state and coincidentally held on the day the elections dates were announced, was a lacklustre event.

The rally, which also marked the culmination of chief minister Vasundhara Raje's 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra', lacked the grandeur of BJP's political rallies. The ruling party, which had announced that three lakh people, including poll booth workers, would attend the rally, failed to even fill the stands, to the extent that 20 minutes before PM's scheduled arrival, senior BJP leaders on the dais were forced to ask the crowds to take the seats in the front row meant for VIPs and were glaringly empty.

Modi, though, claimed that BJP was sure to retain power in the state. "If I were a voter here, looking at all the work in the state, I would bring back BJP," said Modi. He had begun his speech by acknowledging the crowds saying their presence had drafted the fortune lines of the state.
Modi lashed out at political parties involved in vote bank politics. "Vote bank politics is not just limited to elections. It trickles down to bureaucracy, police and government functioning when such parties are in power. This destroys the entire system. They allocate the budget as per vote bank politics and therefore overall development does not happen. Some only know how to divide - Hindus-Muslims, city-village, rich-poor, upper caste-lower, men-women and so on while they rule. Congress has established this tradition in the past 60 years," said the PM.

Modi even advised Raje not to be bothered by the seasonal appearances of Congress leaders during elections. "They are the same everywhere. For us, the 7.5 crore people of Rajasthan are our 'high command'. For them, the high command is just this one family," he said.

Raje's speech was largely restricted to the achievements of her government and lacked the much-needed poll punch. "It is way too early to say I will vote for BJP. The mood is not the same as 2013," said Girdhar Singh Rawat, an attendee.