All set for Modi rally in Davangere on Tuesday

2,000 policemen, 13 platoons of KSRP to provide security

Seating arrangements for the rally. Photo: H.S. Narasimha Kumar

The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to hold a rally to be addressed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday.

This will be the second rally of Mr. Modi after Bangalore’s.

As many as 34 senior leaders of the party, including BJP national general secretary and State in-charge Tavarchand Gehlot, H.N. Anant Kumar, former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and State president Prahlad Joshi, would share the dais with Mr. Modi.

Mr. Modi would land at an helipad on GMIT Engineering College campus at 11.30 a.m. He would formally inaugurate a degree college on the engineering college campus before arriving at the school ground — the venue of the election rally. GMIT College is run by Davangere MP G.M. Siddeshwar’s family trust.

Mr. Modi is expected to speak for 90 minutes. Later, he will go to Mangalore, where he will address another rally in the evening.

Two lakh expected

The BJP said more than two lakh people from Chitradurga, Haveri, Shimoga and Davangere were expected to attend the rally in Davangere. . The party had hired hundreds of buses to transport people to the venue and back.

The Davangere BJP unit had organised a motorcycle rally in the past three days at the hobli-level all over the district inviting people to the rally and the party had organised transport from places where not less than 250 people have expressed their desire to attend the rally.

The party has set up eight screens at different points at the ground to help people watch the proceedings and speech of Mr. Modi.

Security beefed up

The police have made vast arrangements and more than 2,000 personnel would be deployed for the rally. In addition, seven platoons of the KSRP and six platoons of the district armed reserve, two district special forces have been deployed for the rally.

An NSG team from New Delhi and a special team from Gujarat have been in Davangere for the past three days overseeing the arrangements. The teams took over the venue on Monday morning.

The police have installed CCTVs along the route of Mr. Modi’s convoy and at the venue. Sky sentries with rifles and binoculars have been posted at high-rise buildings all around the school ground and 13 check-posts have been set up to check vehicles.

Flex banners of Mr. Modi and Mr. Siddeshwar have been erected all around the city.