Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public programme in Vadodara. Free registrations on BookMyShow opened, and within roughly an hour every available seat was taken. More than 42,000 people ended up on the waiting list. Registration had to be shut down after that.
This is the first time a Prime Minister’s public event in Vadodara has used BookMyShow for registrations, and it was completely free. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation handled it through the private platform. The event is called “NaMo for Viksit Bharat” and is set for Tuesday, 8 September, at the Maharaja Sayajirao University Pavilion Ground. It is meant to bring together students, professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, industry people, civil society members and ordinary citizens around the idea of a developed India by 2047.
The response was strong from the start. Officials and agencies including ANI and PTI reported that seats filled fast once the link went live. Once capacity was reached, the system shifted extra applicants to the waitlist and then closed further registrations. Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi also pointed to the large number on the waiting list.
Entry itself will be fully digital. People who managed to register will get an electronic M-ticket in their BookMyShow account. It carries a live QR code that will be scanned at the gate. Everything from registration and verification to actual entry and seating is being managed through the digital system. The idea is to keep things orderly, cut down on queues and make crowd movement smoother at the venue.
Modi’s day in Vadodara is not just about the public programme. He is scheduled to inaugurate, dedicate and lay foundation stones for development projects worth more than ₹35,000 crore. A major part of that involves three sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor covering 326 route kilometres and built at a cost of over ₹20,700 crore. He is also expected to flag off freight train services from places including New Sanand (North), New Makarpura, New Umbergaon and New JNPT in Mumbai. After Vadodara he heads to Maharashtra the same day for more project work.
People who follow these events have seen strong interest before. The 2019 “Howdy, Modi!” gathering in Houston drew more than 50,000 registered attendees and was declared sold out. Still, using a commercial ticketing platform like BookMyShow for free public registration at a Prime Minister’s programme in India is new, and the speed of the response has drawn notice.
For those who got the ticket, it means a place at the pavilion and a chance to hear the Prime Minister speak about the development push. For the 42,000-plus on the waitlist, it is a case of arriving late to a very popular party. The digital system at least makes the process transparent and relatively quick once you are inside.
Local authorities have been preparing the ground and the technology side for days. The fully digital approach is meant to reduce paper work, speed up checks and help manage the expected turnout more cleanly. Whether it becomes a model for future such programmes remains to be seen, but the first outing has clearly shown there is no shortage of people wanting to attend.
Vadodara has seen plenty of political and public events over the years, yet the combination of a major infrastructure announcement and an open digital registration window produced this kind of rush. The seats went in about sixty minutes. The waiting list climbed past forty-two thousand. And the event itself is only hours away.
That is the story in plain terms. Free tickets on a familiar platform, heavy demand, a closed registration window, and a packed programme of projects worth tens of thousands of crores. People who secured a spot will head to the MSU Pavilion with their digital tickets. Everyone else will follow the proceedings from outside or on screens. Either way, the numbers make the level of interest hard to miss.
Sources:
News18, Times Now, India Today, Hindustan Times, Livemint, Economic Times, CNBC-TV18, India TV, DeshGujarat, PTI and ANI reports.
@Rohit Manral
