Rally to rejuvenate BJP’s campaign in Gurdaspur

Ravi Dhaliwal

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Gurdaspur, May 19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed rally in Dinanagar near here on May 24 is likely to rejuvenate BJP rank and file in Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, where party nominee Dinesh Singh Babbu has been forced to run a low profile campaign amid farmers’ protests at several places.

Gurdaspur constituency has nine Assembly seats, including Dinanagar. The party has followed a two-pronged strategy while selecting Dinanagar as the venue. First, it is equidistant from the remaining eight seats. Secondly, it will be easy for the local leadership to ferry in crowds from the neighbouring seats of Pathankot, Bhoa and Sujanpur – all of which are Hindu majority areas.

Senior BJP leaders said Modi was to commence his party’s campaign from this parliamentary seat, but later had put his plans on hold. In 2014, when actor Vinod Khanna contested for the fourth successive time, the PM had kick-started the BJP campaign from Madhopur in Pathankot district. Modi had delivered a speech from near the statue of Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

Five years later in 2019, when the BJP had fielded actor Sunny Deol, Modi again decided to commence the campaign from this seat.

When Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a rally in Gurdaspur in June 2023, there were clear indications that the PM would sooner or later hold an election rally here. So much so, local leaders had used Shah’s event as a dress-rehearsal for Modi’s visit.

The rally organisers are worried that the scorching heat might play spoilsport.

Forces are being requisitioned from nearby police districts of Batala, Pathankot, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur. Police sources said DIG (Border) Rakesh Kaushal was the overall in-charge of the security.