Mumbai, December 12 – The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, a former tea seller, may have as many as 10,000 tea sellers attending his election rally in Mumbai on December 22.
The BJP’s Mumbai unit has invited tea vendors in their thousands to send a strong message to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, which has attacking Modi’s background.
“Around 10,000 tea vendors from the city will be invited to attend Modiji’s rally. We will send invitations to them soon,” a party functionary said on Wednesday evening.
Since he was named the party’s prime ministerial nominee, Modi has been referring to his humble background as a tea vendor to strike a chord with the common people and to take on Nehru-Gandhi family.
“By inviting tea vendors, we will send out a message to Congress,” the functionary said.
Apart from 5,000 private buses, the state unit has also booked 20-22 trains to ferry its workers from various parts of the state to attend the rally to be held at MMRDA grounds.
As many as 20,000 students from the city will also participate in the rally through BJP’s Yuva Shakti campaign, a party leader said.
According to an office-bearer, state BJP leaders want to make the rally a big success by attracting huge crowds similar to Modi’s Hunkar rally in Patna.
While Congress has accused Modi of playing to the gallery by referring to his humble background, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh recently said even a ‘chaiwala’ (tea vendor) can become prime minister of the country.
Recently, Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Naresh Agarwal created a flutter, saying “someone rising from a tea shop can never have a national perspective”.
–Indiatoday
