Prime Minister Narendra Modi today prayed at the famous Kashi Vishwanath and Kal Bhairav temples, and paid tributes to Hindutva ideologue Madan Mohan Malviya as part of his roadshow, in a bid to rally voters around the BJP in this holy town of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
\nStarting from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Mr. Modi led the roadshow through the winding roads of his Lok Sabha constituency followed by a huge crowd of supporters, as the sixth phase of polling in 49 constituencies, including Gorakhpur and Azamgarh in the state was underway.
\nWith Hindus comprising 80 per cent of Varanasi area\u2019s population, the hindus are once again relying heavily on Mr. Modi to deliver the goods in Uttar Pradesh where it has been out of power for 15 years.
\nBJP leaders also feel that the hours-long event, broadcast live on most of the regional TV news channels, will help their cause when the 40 remaining seats go to the polls in the final phase on March 8.
\nPeople turned out in large numbers as the prime minister\u2019s cavalcade moved at a snail\u2019s pace. \u2018Subah Banaras, sham Banaras; Modi tere naam Banaras\u2019 and \u2018Modi, Modi\u2019 slogans were raised by the supporters as he waved at them.
\nMr. Modi later offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath and Kaal Bhairav temples.
\n\u201cFortunate to visit the Baba Vishwanath temple. Har har Mahadev. Also lucky to pay obeisance at the Kaal Bhairav temple,\u201d Mr. Modi tweeted.
\nThe Congress meanwhile alleged that Mr. Modi violated the model code of conduct by holding the road show without permission of authorities and asked the Election Commission to file an FIR against him and other senior BJP leaders.
\nAdditional District Magistrate (city) Jitendra Singh said a permission was sought for Mr. Modi\u2019s temple visit here. He said a crowd followed Modi when he was heading to offer prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath and the Kal Bhairav temples.<\/p>\n
According to Singh, an EC team was keeping an eye over the movements of all those who are campaigning.
\nThe BJP, which is locked in a tight electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh with the SP-Congress alliance and the Mayawati-led BSP, hopes that a good performance in the eastern parts of the state will take it past the majority mark in the 403-member state Assembly.
\nThe only other time Mr. Modi held a road show here was in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls after he picked Varanasi as one of his seats. The BJP swept the 2014 polls in Uttar Pradesh, winning 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats, along with its ally Apna Dal.
\nThree years later, the saffron camp is once again relying heavily on Mr. Modi to deliver the goods in Uttar Pradesh where it has been out of power for 15 years. It has organised many more public meetings of the prime minister than was anticipated earlier.
\nQuite a few public events of Mr. Modi are lined up in the region tomorrow and the day after, the final day of campaigning for the seventh and last phase of polling on March 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today prayed at the famous Kashi Vishwanath and Kal Bhairav temples, and paid tributes to Hindutva ideologue Madan Mohan Malviya as part of his roadshow, in a bid to rally voters around the BJP in this holy town of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Starting from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Mr. Modi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1134],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}