The Uttarakhand BJP, beset with widespread protests over withering fresh claims in the 2022 receptionist murder case and large-scale defections to the Congress, is looking to the talismanic intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep the flock together.
Modi is scheduled to interact with 30,000 party workers during his visit to the hill
state on April 14 and inaugurate the Dehradun-New Delhi Expressway.
Dubbing the expressway an economic corridor, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said: “The PM will offer prayers at the Dat Kali Temple (in Dehradun) and take out a road show from there to Garhi Cantt, the venue of the event and the public meeting. We will celebrate the occasion as a festival. There would be cultural programmes. We appeal to the people to come out of their houses, carrying the national flag to welcome the PM.”
BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt said: “The PM will meet the party workers.”
Half a dozen senior BJP leaders crossed over to the Congress last month and claimed there were more leaders in the ruling party camp who would follow suit. They had said that there was complete anarchy in the state, and law and order were in a shambles under the Dhami government. They said they would work to bring the Congress back to power in the larger interest of the state.
The Congress is also raising the issue of the mysterious "VIP" linked to the murder of the receptionist in Rishikesh in September 2022. A BJP leader said: “We don’t have a conclusive reply against the allegations except saying that the Congress has fabricated the whole thing. But the truth is that we can’t win elections by keeping alive anti-Muslim sentiments all year round.”