UP polls: Modi to hold roadshow in Varanasi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a roadshow in Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency, on Friday in support of BJP candidates ahead of the last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on March 7.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav is also slated to hold a roadshow in Varanasi in evening.

As the fiercely fought poll battle reaches the prime minister’s constituency, competing parties have been putting in their best to win over the assembly seats here and a perception war before the 2024 general elections.

City BJP president Vidyasagar Rai told PTI that Modi’s roadshow will start around 2 pm from the Maldahiya roundabout after garlanding a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

It is the same spot from where Modi had held his first roadshow in Varanasi after filing his nomination for the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

The roadshow will cover around three kilometres, Rai said.

It will pass through Lahurabir Kabirchara and culminate at the chowk, from where the prime minister will go to the Kashi Vishwanath temple to offer prayers, Rai said, adding that Modi will stay the night at the Diesel Locomotive Work (DLW) guest house.

Modi’s roadshow will cover the three assembly segments of Cantonment, Varanasi North and Varanasi South.

The prime minister will wind up his Varanasi stay with a rally in Khajuria village under the Rohaniya assembly seat on Saturday where he would address the people of the other five assembly seats of the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, Rai said.

The DLW guest house has a nostalgic attachment for Modi, who had earlier written in the visitors’ book there that it reminded him of his childhood days when he used to vend tea at the Vadnagar railway station in Gujarat, he said.

Rai said cutouts of the Ayodhya temple, Kashi Vishwanath dham and bill boards of important government welfare schemes would be put up at roundabouts enroute the roadshow in the city. Women in large numbers will attend the show, he added.

After Modi, Varanasi will see another roadshow by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

SP Varanasi district president Vishnu Sharma told PTI that earlier they had sought permission from district administration to hold the roadshow from 5 pm to 10 pm.

”The district administration, without citing valid reasons, curtailed our time to two hours from 8-10 pm,” Sharma said, adding that permission for landing of Akhilesh Yadav’s helicopter at the police lines ground, for which they had deposited money, has been declined and they have been told landing can be done at the BHU ground.

”BHU ground is far from the city and most probably, Akhilesh ji will reach here by road,” Sharma said.

A senior district official refused to comment on it and said everything was done according to rules.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held a roadshow in Varanasi on Thursday.