In one of his largest roadshows till date, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the BJP’s ‘Pushpanjali Yatra’ on Thursday that will span more than 50 km in Ahmedabad city, where polling will be held in the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly election.
The roadshow will cover 14 seats of Ahmedabad city as well as Gandhinagar-South. Modi’s mega roadshow will start from Naroda Gam area on the eastern side of Ahmedabad and end at the IOC circle in Chandkheda area on the city’s western side in the evening.
The roadshow will pass through various parts of the city including Hirawadi, Hatkeshwar, Maninagar, Danilimda, Jivraj Park, Ghatlodia, Naranpura and Sabarmati.
Of the 14 constituencies through which the roadshow will pass, 11 of them were won by the BJP in 2017. The remaining three seats went to the Congress.
During the yatra, PM Modi will also offer floral tributes to statues of several leaders, including Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay and Subhash Chandra Bose.
Till now, PM Modi has held rallies in 23 of the 33 districts of Gujarat and campaigned in his home state for nine days. He has so far held 28 rallies and done two roadshows.
Addressing a rally in Kalol town of Panchmahal district in Gujarat earlier in the day, PM Modi said there was a competition among Congress leaders as to who will use the most abusive words against him, referring to party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s ‘Ravan’ jibe at him.
Before Kharge, another Congress leader had said the party will show Modi his ‘aukat’ (place), the PM said, apparently referring to Madhusudan Mistry’s remark.
“There is a competition among Congress leaders as to who will use the most abusive words for Modi.” “Those who never believed in the existence of Lord Ram have now brought in (demon king) ‘Ravan’ from Ramayana. And, I am surprised they never expressed repentance, forget about tendering an apology, after using such cuss words for me,” the PM said.
Reacting to Kharge’s comment, the PM said, “I respect Kharge ji. He will say what he has been told to say. Congress party doesn’t know that this is Ram Bhakts’ Gujarat. On this land of “Rambhakts”, they were asked to say, “Modi ji 100 maatha wala raavan”.”
Earlier addressing a rally in Rajkot, PM Modi took a jibe at former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying the country’s economy climbed up by only one position to reach the tenth spot despite a renowned economist being the PM in the Congress-led government for ten years till 2014.
Calling himself a humble “chaiwala”, Modi said the Indian economy became the fifth largest in the world in the last eight years after he assumed the office of the prime minister in 2014.
Voting is being held for the first phase of elections in 89 seats of Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions on Thursday. Polling in the remaining 93 seats including 16 of Ahmedabad city will take place on December 5.