Mangaluru/Udupi/Kodagu: What was touted as the great show of unity among the BJP’s cohorts has turned out to be bigger than lifesize events? The roadshow of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in four places Byndoor, Udupi, Madikeri and Mangalore, saw great number of crowds walking with the roadshow and those who chose to watch and cheer it from the sidelines. The total number of people who participated in the roadshow, according to a conservative estimate exceeded 45,000 in the four locations. Mangalore got over 15,000 people.
At Mangalore city, the roadshow was shorter as it was just about 1 kilometre between Clock Tower and Manjeshwar Govinda Pai Circle via KS Rao road. The meeting went on for more than 2 hours after which Amit Shah was advised to not to take the flight in the night and restricted him to halt in Mangalore.
In the planning stages, Shah was supposed to just hold a roadshow at all these places with no public speeches, however, encouraged by the size of the crowds Amit Shah did make a few flashes of speeches touching only a few points like the increasing menace of terror and anti-social elments on the coast and how it was controlled by opening an NIA office in Bangalore that quickly can handle situations.
One of the speech pointer was that the Congerss party would release all the PFI members and withdraw the ban on PFI to appease a certain section of the society.
Shah asked the audience at Katapady in the Udupi district “Congress leaders are saying that Muslim reservation will be reintroduced if Congress is voted to power, so whose quota will they will scrap later?”
Shah remarked AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge was comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a poisonous snake and then asked the audience if they thought Mallikarjun Kharge’s statement was accurate or not. Every time they criticised Modi, the BJP grew stronger, he said.
A second Modi administration will be in place in 2024 if the BJP wins in Karnataka, he added.