Modi to address four more rallies in Delhi

Buoyed by the "success" of their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's last two rallies in Delhi, the BJP's state unit Thursday said he would be addressing four more rallies in the national capital, days ahead of the Dec 4 assembly polls.

"Three rallies will take place Nov 30 and another Dec 1," said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary Anil Jain.

On Nov 30, the first rally will begin at around 11 a.m. in east Delhi's Shahdara and will cover 16 constituencies, the next rally will take place at 3 p.m. in west Delhi's Sultanpuri covering 12 constituencies and the last will be held at 5 p.m. in Chandni Chowk in the walled city, covering 10 constituencies.

Modi will address a single rally Dec 1 that is scheduled to take place in Ambedkar Nagar in south Delhi at 4 p.m. and will cover 9 constituencies.

Earlier, Modi was to address a rally in the New Delhi constituency as well but the plan was shelved due to "lack of cooperation from authorities".

"The chief minister (Sheila Dikshit) is afraid of Modi coming to New Delhi and was not willing to cooperate. The authorities refused to give us a proper venue for the rally so we had to cancel it," said party leader Vijender Gupta.

Gupta would be competing against incumbent chief minister Sheila Dikshit and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal for the New Delhi seat.

Delhi has a total of 70 assembly seats.

According to a BJP leader, the party is trying hard to cash in on Modi's popularity.

"The last two rallies (Modi) were a huge success in Delhi and we will make sure that his (Modi) popularity helps the party garner as much votes as possible," said a leader.

All the rallies would be simple and incur minimum expenses just like the Nov 23 rally at Dwarka in west Delhi, added the leader.