PM Narendra Modi's busy schedule hits BJP's campaign in Delhi

With the Assembly elections scheduled to take place in the Capital on February 7, the Delhi BJP is a worried lot. While the party is banking on its star campaigner Prime Minister Narendra Modi to woo voters, his packed diaries have left little time for the PM to address rallies in the city.

The Delhi BJP had earlier planned 12 Modi rallies. While the PM will be busy with US President Barack Obama's visit from January 25 to 27, he is likely to visit the UK on January 29 and will return only on February 3. Campaigning in Delhi will conclude on February 5, and so, the PM is available for only a few days.

According to Delhi BJP leaders, it will be impossible to hold more than three or four rallies by Modi in such a short duration as security arrangements will be a major concern. They said in the event of Modi visiting the UK, he will have just two days for campaigning. This has added to the worries of BJP leaders in Delhi, who were banking on Modi for the crucial elections.

"Since the filing of nomination and till the end of campaign, the prime minister will be unavailable for nearly 10 days. This may leave the entire campaign in disarray," a well-placed source said. However, the Delhi BJP leaders have one thing to cheer about --party president Amit Shah is personally monitoring the poll preparations in the Capital. On Saturday, Shah addressed a meeting of party's booth incharges in West Delhi to chalk out a fail-safe booth management plan for the Assembly polls. More than 3,000 booth workers were addressed by Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay, Delhi BJP in-charge Prabhat Jha and general secretary Ram Lal. All booth workers, booth in-charges and leaders of the district units were present in the meeting.

Shah urged the booth workers to visit each and every household in their ward, saying that this was the key to "cracking the elections". He said the party was confident of another victory following its thumping victories in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and J&K, and the Delhi party workers need to just "build on the positive mood created by Modi's leadership and the recent wins".

Earlier in the day, Shah's proposed conference of party workers at Pushp Vihar in South Delhi was cancelled due to denial of permission by the Election Commission.