Union home minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah will visit Goa in polls on Sunday and hold two public rallies, a door-to-door campaign in Sandwaldham and a meeting in Gas Co-da Gama and other places launched the umbrella movement.

Shah’s one-day event will be the first time a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) star activist has spoken at a public meeting in a coastal state since the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the voting schedule for the five state assembly elections earlier this month speak.

According to the itinerary shared by the Shah’s office on Twitter, the Union minister will first visit the Sai Baba Temple in Boling at around 2.45pm, followed by a public meeting at Sun Grace Gardens in Ponda at 3.30pm. After this, he will conduct a door-to-door campaign in Sanvordem at 5 p.m. and deliver another public rally at the town’s Sharda Mandir function room. His one-day tour will end with a town hall and the launch of the Umbrella Movement in Vasco.

On Saturday, Sadanand Shet Tanavade, head of the BJP’s Goa department, said all three of Shah’s public meetings will be held indoors with 50% seating capacity and all Covid-19-related protocols will be in place. He added that the Vasco rallies of Union ministers will be broadcast live simultaneously in 10 different parliamentary constituencies.

Last week, the ECI extended its ban on brick-and-mortar gatherings and roadshows in all polling states until January 31 following a third wave of Covid-19 driven by the Omicron variant. The constituencies that will hold voting in the first stage are limited to 500 people. Additionally, indoor meetings of up to 300 people or 50% of venue capacity are permitted.

The committee also raised the limit for door-to-door events to 10 from the previous five.

The BJP has released the names of all candidates for the 40 seats in Goa’s parliament ahead of next month’s polls. The party fielded Krishna Viswambhar Salkar from Vasco-Da-Gama constituency, and Ravi Sitaram Naik and Ganesh Gaonkar from Ponda and Sanvordem seats respectively. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has been sent to the Sanquelim seat.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times