Rewari (Haryana): Seeking to boost BJP’s prospects in the Ahirwal belt where the party did well in the last assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a rally here and spoke in detail about his government’s efforts to boost national security.
Modi’s rally in Rewari, held on the last day of campaigning, was part of three rallies added to his original schedule to boost the party’s prospects, sources said .
BJP had performed strongly in the 11 seats of Ahirwal belt in 2014 assembly polls and won all the seats. The area was not seen as a BJP stronghold till 2014.
The eleven seats, which are spread over three districts, are – Pataudi, Badshahpur, Gurugram, Sohna, Bawal, Kosli, Rewari, Mahendragarh, Barnaul, Nangal Choudhary and Ateli.
Rewari holds special significance for Modi as he addressed his first rally here after being declared BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in 2013.
On Saturday, he urged voters to vote for the party to provide a clean government.
“Who will become MLA and who will not…our aim is to get a clean government. It is the Congress culture where for a person, they break the party. We do not belong to this culture. In every booth, there should be record voting. And you have to break the record of the last Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Rewari has a sizeable presence of ex-servicemen and Modi spoke in detail about Jammu and Kashmir where his government repealed Article 370.
A BJP leader said that that the party has been achieving electoral success after Modi’s rally in Rewari in September 2013.
“It was six years ago on September 15, 2013, that the then PM-designate Modi had addressed a huge rally for ex-servicemen and promised to fulfil the demand for one rank one pension. And BJP never looked back after that,” he said.
The party is facing problem of rebels on some seats and is keen that there is no division of votes to achieve its goal of winning 75 seats in the 90-member assembly. There also have been some reports of sparring over candidate selection and the perceived influence of a party MP.
Rewari had been a stronghold of Congress with its leader Ajay Singh Yadav winning the seat several times. However, in 2014 BJP candidate Randhir Singh Kapriwas won the seat by about 45,000 votes.
Denied ticket, Kapriwas is now contesting as an independent. Congress has fielded Chiranjeev Rao, son of Yadav and son-in-law of RJD leader Lalu Prasad.
The BJP has given the ticket to Sunil Musepur, a close aide of party MP Rao Inderjit Singh.