Across Britain on Sunday, two car rallies, one linked to Bharatiya Janata Party and the other to Indian National Congress, took place to exert influence on voters in India ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
One of the rallies was organized by Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP)-United Kingdom and the other was by Indian Overseas Congress (IOC)-UK.
Sudhakar Goud, the spokesperson for IOC UK, said half an hour before the Congress convoy reached the Gandhi statue in London’s Tavistock Square, an IOC supporter, who had moved ahead, saw 10 cars plastered with BJP flags and banners leaving. The convoys otherwise took different routes.
Starting early morning from Hounslow, the IOC traveled in a 100-car convoy, touching key landmarks in London and then going on to Birmingham, Coventry, and Slough, ending up in Osterley in the evening. About 400 people took part in the IOC rally and AICC secretary in charge of IOC Himanshu Vyas was the chief guest.
On the other hand, BJP had 500 cars on the road in city-wide rallies in Edinburgh, London, Birmingham, Leicester, Milton Keynes, and Newcastle, lasting four hours.
The BJP London rally was flagged off by the racing driver by Advait Deodhar. As many as 275 cars with 600 people took part in that rally.
“The aim is to create awareness among people to make sure they call back home and ensure people vote for Modi,” OFBJP UK president Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat said.
IOC’s Goud said: “Our main focus is to get Congress back into power. The freedom movement started in the UK and the main Congress leaders were NRIs. Mahatma Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh studied in the UK. So, the UK plays a vital role in motivating the Indian diaspora to spread awareness to vote for Congress back in India.
“The Indian diaspora is very influential. We don’t have much time, so we are telling every IOC supporter to be a foot soldier. Many of us will be going to India to help out. Narendra Modi is for people like Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi, and he does not care about the poor,” said Goud.
OFBJP’s Shekhawat said: “We have 10,000 Modi campaigners in the UK, 2,000 of whom have already gone to India to work for the election. From mid-April, most of us are traveling to India. We had a very good response in Southall. Some people started dancing in the street, shouting ‘Modi Modi’. I am not worried. Since Pulwama, people have come out strongly in favor of Modi.”
Twenty-five people in 12 cars wearing ‘Namo Again’ T-shirts turned up at the Edinburgh BJP rally. “We are showing that NRIs support Modi to inspire people in India to vote for him. We were expecting more people but there were snow and ice,” said organizer IT consultant Puneet Dwivedi.
Overseas Citizenship of India card holders cannot vote in the Lok Sabha election, while, Indian passport holders have to return to India to do so.
By Sowmya Sangam
