Shah to file nomination after road show

BJP president Amit Shah will be filing nomination for the Lok Sabha polls in Gandhinagar here on Saturday morning in the presence of senior party leaders, including Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and leaders of BJP allies like Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray and ex Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal.

Shah is replacing BJP veteran L K Advani in the seat, said to be a party stronghold.

Since the announcement of Shah's name, party workers have been working hard to make his nomination-filing a grand function.

Shah will be arriving in Ahmedabad late on Friday night, and he will be addressing workers around 9 am the next morning at the Sardar Patel statue in Naranpura area, which will be followed by a roadshow.

Shah used to represent the Naranpura Assembly constituency and has lived in the area.

A large number of workers are expected to attend the function, for which more than 150 policemen have been deployed along the 4-km stretch where the roadshow has been organised.

After the road show, Sha is expected to be accompanied by the senior leaders to Gandhinagar, where he will submit his nomination papers.

State BJP president Jitu Vaghani said, "a human chain will be formed in Gandhinagar near the office where nomination will be filed".

The party workers also did a rehearsal of the roadshow on Friday evening.

The BJP workers in Gandhinagar are trying to set a record with Shah's victory. In 2014, Advani had won the polls with a record margin of 4.83 lakh.