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Himachal elections: PM Modi addresses youth rally in CM’s home turf of Mandi
Yuva Vijay Sankalp Rally, being organised by BJYM, the BJP’s youth wing, is aimed at motivating youngsters to take part in the assembly elections slated to take place in two months
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a youth rally virtually in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh on Saturday afternoon and sounded the poll bugle for the BJP.
Also watch: Drums, trumpets at Mandi rally ahead of PM Modi’s address today
Though the Yuva Vijay Sankalp Rally was organised by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) at Paddal Maidan in Mandi, the home turf of chief minister Jairam Thakur, the PM addressed the rally virtually from New Delhi due to bad weather.
Mandi emerges as nerve centre of state politics
Population-wise, Mandi is the second biggest district of the state, and the new nerve centre of politics in the hill state.
The Aam Aadmi Party had also chosen Mandi to kickstart its poll campaign in Himachal Pradesh with its national convener Arvind Kejriwal holding a rally, too.
BJYM national president Tejasvi Surya said that an estimated one lakh youngsters from across Himachal Pradesh will participate in this rally.
The state police have made elaborate arrangements with a 1,800-strong force deployed to ensure smooth traffic and security.
Poll date to be announced in first week of October
The assembly election in Himachal Pradesh is scheduled to be held in November.
A high-level team of the Election Commission of India, led by chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar, is on a three-day visit to Himachal Pradesh to review poll preparedness. The EC is likely to announce the poll date in the first week of October.
On the second of the three-day visit to the state, Kumar on Friday held meetings with state chief secretary RD Dhiman and director general of police Sanjay Kundu to review poll-preparedness. “Our focus will be on how to motivate first-time voters to exercise their franchise. There is a tendency among young voters that they turn out in low numbers to vote,” the CEC said.
The opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have been targeting the BJP government in the state and at the Centre for failing to fulfil the promise of bringing down unemployment. Himachal Pradesh has an army of 10 lakh jobless people, most of them youngsters, the opposition parties allege, adding that the state’s debt burden has risen, while education and health sectors are in a shambles.