Food packets or cash coupons must to attend Modi Bihar rally

Call it hope or hype, but the Bihar BJP is counting on people to pay though their nose for a glimpse of Narendra Modi. And the charge? Starting from Rs 50 and going up to Rs 1000 — enough for tickets to a cricket match.

Call it hope or hype, but the Bihar BJP is counting on people to pay though their nose for a glimpse of Narendra Modi. And the charge? Starting from Rs 50 and going up to Rs 1000 — enough for tickets to a cricket match.

The extravagantly priced coupons are for the party’s October 27 Hunkar rally, and they are “flying off the shelves,” assured the rally’s chief organiser Vinay Kumar Singh.

Instead of buying tickets, one can also bring food packets, which are to be distributed at the rally. But that won’t be cheap either. A citizens’ forum — the Patna nagrik manch — has decreed that every family should contribute three or four packets, “each comprising 10 chapatis/puris, vegetables and pickles”.

The BJP had sold tickets for Modi’s August 11 rally in Hyderabad — a first in the country for any political rally. But while the Rs 5 charge per head was said to be for Uttarakhand flood relief, the proceeds this time are meant to fund the rally. “Not a paise is coming from outside Bihar,” said state BJP chief Mangal Pandey.

But that’s not all there is to it. “Monetising the Modi aura is the least of our worries. The fact is that the people, including politicians, are vying for a piece of the pie in their own interest,” said BJP MLA Nityanand Rai.