New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday invoked its mentor and former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee's iconic poem "Ao fir se diya jalaye" to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign urging all citizens to light a candle at 9 p.m. on Sunday for nine minutes to show their solidarity with the fight against the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The BJP tweeted a 50-second clip where Vajpayee could be seen reciting his poem with the caption: "We have to challenge the darkness of Corona together."

The poem itself is about hope and positivity. It is believed to have been penned after an electoral debacle of BJP when Lal Krishna Advani took Vajpayee to Delhi's Golcha cinema to cheer him up.


On returning home, he wrote this poem which said, "Let us light the lamp once again".

In fact, the poem is often used by the BJP to enthuse its cadres after any electoral loss, just like it was used after the loss in the recent Delhi Assembly polls.

Earlier on Friday, Modi in a short video message to the nation said, "I request all of you to switch off all the lights at your homes on April 5 at 9 p.m. for nine minutes, and light a candle, diya or your mobile's flashlight to mark our fight against coronavirus."