Campaign Trail - Sanjay Tandon: 25 km of padyatra, late night core committee meeting mark his day

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, May 22

It’s 7 am and a car with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is already being cleaned for ferrying BJP’s Lok Sabha election candidate Sanjay Tandon to a padyatra in Mani Majra from his Sector 18 house.

Tewari neglected, deserted

Chandigarh BJP Lok Sabha candidate Sanjay Tandon today alleged that the Congress nominee Manish Tewari looks like a deserted and neglected candidate as two top Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, did not address any public meeting in his favour. He alleged that it showed that the party high command had conceded defeat of Tewari. TNS

Wearing a kurta pyjama, Tandon comes out of his house asking his staff, “Have you kept newspapers in the car.” His staff ensures that newspapers, ‘chana’, roasted almonds, lime water and ‘aam panna’ are there beside his seat in the car.

“I will read now what you all have published about me,” he smiles as he sits in his car with Chandigarh Tribune reporter accompanying him.

“Since, I have to leave early for public events, I have a glance of newspapers in the car. My staff keeps water and eatables as it takes about one to two hours for a padyatra. They also keep a piece of cloth so that I can drench it and keep it on my head in this extreme hot condition,” he says, adding that he walks about 25 km in a day.

As he reaches Mani Majra, area councillor Sarabjit Kaur’s husband Jagtar Singh Jagga and former Mayors Anup Gupta and Subhash Chawla along with party supporters are already waiting to greet him with party flags and scarfs amid chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

They start the walk and pass through narrow lanes of Mani Majra. On his way, Tandon keeps waving at people.

Along the walk, supporters keep distributing pamphlets and pasting stickers outside houses, reading ‘humare ghar vote mangane mat aana, hum khud Modiji ke liye vote maang rahe hai’ (Don’t come to our house for vote, we are already seeking votes for Modi).

A group of youths are carrying a small speaker and are raising the slogans ‘abki paar 400 paar’, ‘koi nahi hai takkar mein, kyun pade ho chakar mein’ and ‘ayega bhai ayega, Sanjay Tandon ayega’. Many are seen wearing BJP’s T-shirt reading “abki baar 400 paar.”

On his way, Tandon halts at some places for greeting people and taking selfies with them. After about one hour of padyatra, which ends at the Samadhi Gate, he finally goes to Mani Majra-situated party office.

Tandon returns home and takes about half an hour to get fresh. As the former BJP president goes to his basement office, several groups of people are waiting to meet him. It includes local BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, Crawfed team led by chairman Hitesh Puri, a group of sadhus, party leaders and others.

Some are offered breakfast or tea. Daily food counters three times a day have been set up at his residence. After holding meetings here, he heads for other padyatras and public meetings in the second half.

Later, in the day, he attends an Intellectual Meet at Lobana Bhawan in Sector 30. His day ends late into the night with BJP’s core committee meeting at Kamalam in Sector 33.

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