New Delhi: After the sixth phase of the polling is over on May 25, BJP leaders will gather in Varanasi for one final push for the Lok Sabha elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is the party candidate from Varanasi will base himself in the constituency from May 26 to June 1, while he carries out rallies and campaigns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar as well as West Bengal, said sources.
BJP leaders DH spoke to said this is the norm. In 2014 and 2019 too, the prime minister had done the same. Varanasi, along with 12 more seats in Uttar Pradesh, is among the 57 seats that will go to the polls in the final phase on June 1.
Sources in the party said the prime minister will hold an organisational ‘baithak’ in Varanasi during the period. “Last time, he held a meeting with karyakartas, and on Tuesday, he held a meeting with women voters, where 10 women each from the 1,909 booths were mobilised,” a leader from party’s UP unit said.
PM Modi has, in the last fortnight, made two visits to Varanasi, and a day before he filed his nomination on May 14, he spent a night here.
A senior party spokesperson said, “Despite his popularity, PM Modi makes it a point to set aside time for his seat, and makes it a point to appeal for votes, unlike Opposition leaders who abandon their seats after they win or they lose,” the spokesperson said, adding that in the last decade, the prime minister has held at least 50 programmes in Varanasi.
Till now, BJP sources said, PM Modi has carried out more than 250 rallies across the country during the election season. In the run-up to the 2014 general elections, when he was first elected from Varanasi, Modi had carried out as many as 437 rallies in the month ahead of the polls.
Published 24 May 2024, 22:26 IST