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A behind the scenes look at Advani's rath yatra
Beyond the public rallies and welcome sabhas, Bhartiya Janta Party's senior leader Lal Krishna Advani holds en-route to his sixth rath yatra which started on October 11, there is much preparation that goes on the backstage that misses the immediate attention, says Priyanka.
In the past six days, the yatra has already travelled through Chhapra (in Saran district) and Patna in Bihar, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Rewa, Satna, Jabalpur and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh; it reaches Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.
Needless to say, a lot of preparation goes in organising a yatra of such proportions. A lot needs to be planned: public rallies, finalising the venue and setting up the stage, mobilising the crowds, resting and boarding of party workers, putting up the posters and party flags.
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A behind the scenes look at Advani's rath yatra
And to ease the matters, BJP's Yuva Morcha is at the forefront of making the arrangements.
"During the yatra, we plan to organise 680 events in all districts across the country, 600 Jan Chetna Sankalp Sabhas and 80 Jan Chetna Sabhas, to create awareness of Advaniji's yatra among the people," said Anurag Thakur, national president, BJP's Yuva Morcha.
They are also planning on holding a candle-light procession in each of districts Advani visits, on a day prior to when the yatra reaches it.
The state unit of the Yuva Morcha is handling most of the arrangements for the yatra as long it stays in their respective states.
Sanjeev Kshatriya, the vice president of Yuva Morcha of Bihar, said their state unit had swung into action the day it was announced that the yatra was to begin from Bihar.
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A behind the scenes look at Advani's rath yatra
"We travelled to all the 43 districts in Bihar and held sabhas to create awareness among people," he said.
With an active membership of about one lakh Yuva Morcha workers in the state, it wasn't very difficult. "People here very tired of corruption and unemployment, and it wasn't difficult to get people to come to sabhas and listen to Advaniji," he added.
Yuva Morcha workers are reaching to the people at three levels- the basic and foremost, at the village level, then at the mandal and the district level- by holding sabhas.
"It is a lot of hard work, and we will feel relieved only after the yatra progresses from our state," says another Bihar Yuva Morcha member, Sushma Sahu.
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A behind the scenes look at Advani's rath yatra
Alongside the Yuva Morcha, other units of the BJP and their respective state units have joined hands to support the yatra across the many states it is travelling to.
These units- a total of 36- include the Mahila Morcha, Kisan Morcha as well others such as national and state units for Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes.
Nita Patariya is the head of the Mahila Morcha in Madhya Pradesh. She says she and her party workers have been travelling for over a month to all districts in the state to harness support for the yatra.
"The party makes their workers very hard," she says adding that she has not been able to catch a night's good sleep for over three weeks.
Not just the party workers, but the state administration and the police force are working hard to make the yatra passes by peacefully. A few on-duty police officers in Patna confided they had been working for long shifts and that there was immense pressure that nothing goes wrong during the rath yatra.