Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a major road show in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi on Thursday before he sets out to file his nomination paper on Friday, April 26.
The PM's roadshow will pass through the main areas of the temple town before culminating at Dashashwamedh Ghat where he will participate in "Ganga Aarti", the BJP said.
Top BJP leaders including party president Amit Shah and other leaders of NDA including many Chief Ministers are expected to attend the roadshow going from Lanka near Banaras Hindu University to the Dashashwamedh Ghat via Godoliya.
PM Modi is expected to be accompanied by seniormost leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Piyush Goyal and others.
Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states are expected to be in Varanasi. NDA leaders including Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Lok Jan Shakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan will also be present on this occasion, the party said.
The prime minister will land at Varanasi's Babatpur airport around 2 pm in the afternoon, before heading to the helipad at Banaras Hindu University and taking the car from there to Lanka, from where the roadshow will begin. PM Modi will first garland the statue of Madan Mohan Malviya at the location, before embarking on the roadshow, BJP said in a statement.
Before filing his nomination PM Modi will visit Kashi Vishwanath Temple to offer prayers.
"Now, the people of Varanasi do not spit 'paan' here and there after chewing it. I mean to say that the Varanasi has changed and has developed a lot but without compromising its values," said Kaushal Kishore Sharma, a professor at BHU.
"Earlier there were wires all over but now the lines have been made underground. Ganga is much cleaner now," he said.
Ashok Dwivedi, the chief trustee of Kashi Vishwanath Temple said that not only in Varanasi but people all over India want that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should avail a second term.
"I visited many states and cities like Cuttack, Bengaluru, Chennai, Haryana etc and believe me the public is seeing hope in PM Modi for they think that he will resolve their small regional issues and will revoke Article 35A and 370 related to Jammu and Kashmir. People are quite confident that he will lead India ahead under his strong leadership," said Ashok Dwivedi.
Seers are also rallying in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that he has done unprecedented developmental works and has clean the Ganga as never before.
"You can take Ganga water and drink it. You will not get ill. PM Modi has worked for cleaning Ganga. 80 per cent of saints are in favour of Narendra Modi," said seer Neelkanth.
Meanwhile, security is heightened in the city ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit with adequate troops and security personnel deployed strategically. Small drones have also been deployed to keep an eye on activities.
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