Narendra Modi to kick off PM campaign with Haryana rally today

A rally of ex-servicemen in Haryana on Sunday is the first of the many public events to be attended by CM Narendra Modi after his anointment as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate. The events are seen as an attempt by Modi to hard-sell his policies and also to galvanise the BJP cadres across the country in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

According to officials, the ex-servicemen’s rally will take place at Rewari in Haryana. Former army chief Gen VK Singh will also address the rally, which will be watched with a great deal of interest both within and outside the BJP. Modi will speak on national security and matters concerning ex-servicemen, they said. The next Sunday, Modi will address the Indian Diaspora at the annual convention of Overseas Friends of BJP in Tampa, US, through satellite.

On September 25, Modi will address a BJP workers’ rally at Bhopal in the presence of MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Reports say that BJP stalwart LK Advani, who is unhappy over his one-time protégé Modi’s elevation, is also expected to attend the rally.

The next day, he will address the 60th birthday celebrations of Mata Amrutanandmayi Devi at Amritapuri, Kerala. He will also address a huge conference of Youth BJP in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, on the same day.

Trichy has a sizeable Muslim population and is also home to a large number of Sri Lankan repatriates. The BJP doesn’t have much presence in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but these visits, and the ones in recent times, are seen as an attempt to invigorate party workers.

September 29 will see Modi attending the Bharatanatyam dance festival in New Delhi. On September 30, the last day of the month, the PM-hopeful is slated to address The International Advertising Association’s Platinum Jubilee Global Marketing Summit in Mumbai.