Shivraj Singh Chouhan to hold counter rally in Mandsaur a week before Rahul’s June 6 protest

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will hold a public meeting in Mandsaur on May 30 ahead of Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s proposed farmers’ rally in the same city on June 6, state BJP leaders said on Monday.

While Gandhi’s rally is being pitched as a tribute to the six farmers who died in police firing and lathi charge during the farmers’ agitation on June 6, 2017, it will also mark the launch of the Congress party’s election campaign in the state, slated for later this year.

“All BJP MLAs and leaders of the region have been given targets for bringing people to the convention venue so that it is an impressive show and we will try to make it much bigger than Rahul Gandhi’s meeting on June 6,” said a BJP legislator from the region. The main aim is to project that farmers and the poor are still with the party and the anger of the farmers, especially Patidars who dominate the area, has subsided, the same leader said.

Senior Congress leader from and former minister Narendra Nahata said, “It will be a show of strength for the BJP… The administration is playing with the psychology of the farmers, but all this won’t help because the voters want change.”

BJP Mandsaur district president Devi Singh Dhakar said, “The farmers and the people of the entire state are with the CM and the BJP and that is why they will come for the meet…”