A day after winning four out of five state Assembly elections including the crucial Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in his home state and took out a nine-km mega roadshow from Ahmedabad airport to the party's headquarters in Gandhinagar, indicating that the party has taken the plunge into election mode already.
On the road, dozens of billboards were erected to welcome the prime minister. Some of these "thanked" Modi for carrying out "Operation Ganga" for evacuating Indian citizens stuck in Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Modi reached the BJP office, named Kamalam, and interacted with party workers. BJP officials claimed that over 400 workers including MPs, MLAs and party functionaries had gathered to meet the prime minister. "This is the first time that Modi-Ji visited the party office after the change of guard in the government. It was already planned and the meeting coincided with election results which turned out in favour of BJP that resulted in the huge mobilisation of party workers," said a BJP leader.
Sources said that Modi was visiting the state for the first time after the party ousted the Vijay Rupani government all of a sudden and replaced it with a new team under Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. "We are always in election mode but of course, this was a huge mobilisation of workers and supporters ahead of the state assembly election," sources said. BJP is not releasing the contents of Modi's interaction with the party leaders.
With the assembly election barely six months away, BJP will not leave any stone unturned to retain its hold on Gujarat, which they have been ruling since 1995. Modi alone was at the helm as chief minister for 13 years from 2001 to 2014. After 2014, however, BJP has changed two chief ministers-Anandiben Patel, who is currently governor of Uttar Pradesh and Vijay Rupani. Bhupendra Patel is the third CM, who was appointed in September last year after the removal of his predecessor Vijay Rupani and nearly two dozen ministers apparently to buck anti-incumbency.
Later in the evening, Modi addressed another mega gathering "Maha Panchayat Sammelan'' at GMDC ground in Ahmedabad, where nearly a lakh elected presidents, members of the district and taluka panchayats and sarpanch and members of gram panchayats had arrived from across the state.
Addressing the elected members, Modi said, "See the power of democracy. In states where there was no repeat theory, we are forming governments again. It is because of development," Modi said at the end of his speech without elaborating on these developments. On Thursday, BJP retained its power in Uttar Pradesh, neighbouring Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.
Modi's speech was focussed on the role of women representatives, who, he said, were highest in numbers in the state compared to any other state.
Recalling his days as a party worker in Haryana, Modi said he first heard about "SP" there and later realised that SP stood for "Sarpanch Pati" or husband of an elected sarpanch who does all the work on her behalf. Modi asked the village representatives to "hold anniversary celebrations of primary schools to encourage children to study and improve drop out ratio." He also appealed to them to plant 75 trees in their villages to celebrate 75 years of Independence.
On Saturday, BJP sources said, the Prime Minister is expected to visit the state secretariat in Gandhinagar and interact with officials. From the secretariat, he would fly to Rashtriya Raksha University in a chopper to preside over convocation as a chief guest. In the evening, he will inaugurate the state-sponsored sports extravaganza "Khel Mahakumbh" at Sardar Patel Stadium.
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