Sunday, 1 November
Englishहिंदी
Get the 7 am briefing
India and the world,
in English and Hindi
CEC rowAutosNepalBJP marchCEC rowDelhi airHyundai
Sensex 74,459.53 +0.42%Nifty 50 23,053.10 +0.51%₹ / $ 94.93

PoliticsBJP

BJP answers INDIA bloc rally with Nabin-led march in Rohtak; Puri calls 1 November date 'insensitive'

As opposition supporters gather at Ramlila Maidan, the BJP president leads a 'Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao' padyatra in Haryana, part of a campaign the party says will counter the opposition's claims on the electoral rolls.

From the editorial desk · RohtakPublished
BJP president Nitin Nabin and the Maharshi Dayanand University gate in Rohtak (file photo)
BJP president Nitin Nabin and the Maharshi Dayanand University gate in Rohtak (file photo)Photos: PcdGoogle / Wikimedia Commons; MDU Rohtak / Wikimedia Commons, CC0, CC BY-SA 3.0

Key points

  1. BJP president Nitin Nabin leads a padyatra in Rohtak from 11 am.
  2. The march is the party's counter to the INDIA bloc rally in Delhi over the SIR.
  3. Hardeep Singh Puri called holding the rally on the 1984 riots anniversary "insensitive".

The BJP is answering the opposition’s show of strength in Delhi with one of its own in Haryana. Party president Nitin Nabin leads a padyatra in Rohtak this morning, due to set off at 11 am from the Chhotu Ram Polytechnic Ground, as INDIA bloc supporters fill Ramlila Maidan to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The march, called “Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao” (save democracy, remove anarchy), ends at D-Park in Model Town, where Nabin is to lay flowers at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and state BJP president Archana Gupta are expected to join him.

The party has framed the campaign as a reply to the opposition’s charges over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It calls it a movement against “falsehoods, conspiracies and unrest engineered by a desperate opposition”, and says workers are “reaching every village and household” to set out its side. Gupta said the campaign “seeks to highlight democratic values, political accountability and issues concerning public interest.”

Rohtak was not chosen at random. The city, a Congress stronghold, has seen two BJP and Congress face-offs over the SIR in the past fortnight. A second padyatra is planned in Faridabad today with Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and Amit Shah is due to lead one in Karnal on 5 November.

A row over the date

In Delhi, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri attacked the timing of the opposition rally, held on the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He called the choice of date “insensitive” and said the bloc could have held it after 4 November.

The opposition leaders are due to march from Connaught Place to Ramlila Maidan at noon.