PM Modi to kick off Bihar poll campaign on Thursday with 3 rallies on day 1

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start his election campaign for Bihar Assembly elections from Friday (October 23). On day one, Modi will address rallies in Sasaram, Gaya, and Bhagalpur.

The BJP declared the Prime Minister’s itinerary on Thursday (October 22). Modi will address 12 rallies in all across Bihar for NDA candidates. On October 28, the first phase of elections, the PM will address voters in Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Patna. On November 3, he will hold rallies in Chhapra, East Champaran and Samastipur along with West Champaran, Saharsa and Araria.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi to begin their Bihar campaign on October 23. PM will hold joint rallies with CM Nitish Kumar while RG and Tejashwi Yadav are expected to share stage in one of the rallies #BiharElections

— Aman Sharma (@AmanKayamHai_) October 21, 2020

The BJP anticipates less crowd at certain places due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the party will live telecast Modi’s rallies using digital formats across Bihar.

“We will hold parallel meetings in every five villages of a constituency through LEDs. This way we will hold 100 meetings at a time. This will be our effort towards ensuring social distancing in view of COVID-19,” said Devendra Fadnavis, former Maharashtra chief minister and Bihar Assembly election in-charge for BJP.

Fadnavis called a meeting in Bodh Gaya on Sunday to discuss the strategy for increasing the reach of Modi’s rallies during the campaigning.

State BJP president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal said, “There will be four LED screens and one giant screen in all assembly constituencies, which will telecast PM’s speech.” All candidates would be present in their respective constituencies and address people in open fields just before the PM’s speech is telecast.

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There will be restricted entry at all the venues of PM Modi’s rallies in view of the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India.

The BJP and the Janata Dal (United) have agreed to 121-122 seat-sharing formula for the 243-member assembly in Bihar which will be held in three phases – October 28, November 3, and 7 and the counting will take place on November 10.

Prime Minister Modi will probably stand out as the lone big campaigner in Bihar this time in the absence of stalwarts of Bihar politics like Lalu Prasad Yadav (in jail), late Ram Vilas Paswan (died recently), late Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (died recently) and Sharad Yadav (not well). Of course, Rahul Gandhi will campaign, but Sonia Gandhi has opted out due to prevailing COVID conditions.