Larger-than-life cutouts of Narendra Modi and BJP posters greeted people on the road on Saturday morning but without any major problem caused to their movement during the Prime Minister's visit.
"I had read only this morning that the BJP leaders were angry after the district administration had started to bring down the hoardings belonging to the BJP after terming them illegal. It is quite a surprise however to see so many hoardings of the party with the picture of the Prime Minister all along. It seems that the BJP's men have worked all night," said Sharad Sharma, a resident of Punaichak.
With chief minister Nitish Kumar welcoming Modi with a new campaign, "Jhanse me naa aayenge, Nitish ko jitayenge", the BJP posters, also laced with catchy two and three liners, left no stone unturned in welcoming Modi.
"One of the hoardings of the BJP reads, ' Kamal ke godh me baithna hai, jungle raaj hataana hai'. Such two-liners are just everywhere now. Another one reads, 'Har Bihari ki hunkar, BJP saang chaala Bihar'. I am loving this new type of campaigning," said Ravi Singh, a resident of Boring Road.
With almost all roads being barricaded properly, the residents did not face major problems. "Maybe for the first time, the movement of a VVIP did not cause much problems for me," said Sudhir Ojha, a commuter of Fraser Road.
Sudhir, an accountant, was also amazed to see the king-sized hoardings. "However, the hoardings are different from what they used to be earlier. Both Nitish and Modi are seeing pointing fingers at most of them. They have already locked horns in the posters, it depicts," he added with a smile.
The policemen, who were having sleepless nights over Modi's visit, were relieved and happy. "Our plan really worked well. The traffic along the roads the Prime Minister took was shut down 20 minutes prior to the movement. With less vehicles around, it was a peaceful show with people also showing patience," said superintendent of police (traffic) P.K. Das.
Weather worry
Met officials kept a close watch on the weather in the afternoon as a thunderstorm formed between Patna and Muzaffarpur, around the time the Prime Minister was scheduled to fly.
Modi was slated to take a chopper ride to Muzaffarpur to address a Parivartan Rally and return to Patna.
The weather god was, however, merciful enough to allow smooth sorties of Modi's helicopter from Muzaffarpur to Patna, and thereafter a safe departure of an Indian Air Force aircraft to Delhi. While the PM had a safe air travel, the thundercloud development between 2 and 4pm gave anxious moments to senior officials of the Air Force, air traffic control at airport and the Met office.
"Localised thunderstorm was a constant feature of today's (Saturday's) weather in central and south Bihar. Though the system persisted for the next three hours, it did not cause much turbulence in the path of the copter either en route to Muzaffarpur or in the return sortie," said Ashish Sen, director, Patna meteorological centre.
