16 January,2011 07:03 AM IST | | Varun Singh
Will relinquish cosy couches to sit on stage at today's rally, and make do with minimal chairs
While one part of Mumbai, the southern tip to be precise, will be packed with marathon runners, the Bandra Kurla Complex will see a crowd of another kind. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to hold a rally against the price rise today.
What's going to make this one stand out from price rise rally clones is that top leaders of the NDA will ditch comfortable sofas that usually line the stage, and instead park themselves on plastic chairs.
Senior leaders like LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Gopinath Munde from the BJP, Uddhav Thackeray from the Shiv Sena and Sharad Yadav from the Janata Dal (United) are expected to be on stage.
Vivekanand Gupta, spokesperson of the BJP said, "We have planned to place regular plastic chairs on stage.
Ours is a fight against corruption and price rise. We don't need fanfare. It will be a silent, low-key affair, where people will meet and discuss the wrongdoings of the ruling government."
Other BJP leaders Jiten Gajaria and Om Prakash Chouhan who have been helping organise the event claim they have placed an order for nearly 50,000 chairs. The original plan was to have leaders go stoic and sit on the ground, but uneven surfaces made that idea impractical.
The reason behind holding the rally in Mumbai, says Gupta, is, "The corruption in Mumbai is not only spoken of in India, but discussed worldwide. It's the right location."
This is the third NDA meeting to be held against corruption, after one each in Delhi and Guwhati.
