PM Modi conducted the longest roadshow in Gujarat (50 km, 16 seats).
This long road show of 50 kilometers starts from Nirdha Game and ends through seat 16 in Gandhinagar South.
In his home state of Gujarat, which had its first-ever assembly election on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted a massive roadshow, which was reportedly the longest one ever by an Indian head of state.
Only four days remain before the areas he traversed cast their votes in what is regarded as a prestige struggle for the BJP. In the state, where it has held power since 1995, the party is running for a seventh consecutive term.
The Prime Minister’s decision of route has served as a type of declaration. The 50-km roadshow, which aims to put the past behind it, began Thursday evening from Naroda Gam, one of the hotspots of the riots that broke out in 2002 after the fire at the Sabarmati Express in Godhra.
After passing through 16 constituencies, including Thakkarbapanagar, Bapunagar, Nikol, Amraiwadi, Maninagar, Danilimbda, Jamalpur Khadia, Elisbridge, Vejalpur, Ghatlodia, Naranpur, and Sabarmati, it came to an end at Gandhinagar South. The route was travelled in more than 4 hours.
The roadshow, where hundreds marched while waving party flags and to the sound of joyful drums, was the biggest event for the BJP in this election. The Prime Minister waved to the ecstatic people lining the roadways as he rode an open vehicle decorated with garlands.
According to the BJP, it was the longest roadshow by a political leader in India. There were numerous pauses along the route at memorials honouring notable figures, such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay. PM Modi presented floral offerings at the memorials.
The Naroda seat, which has supported the BJP since 1990, has fielded the daughter of a riot offender.
The candidate, Payal Kukrani, 30, is the daughter of Manoj Kukrani, one of the 16 defendants in the Naroda Patiya riots case, which resulted in the deaths of 97 Muslims. She is one of the party’s youngest candidates this time around and an anaesthetist.
Manoj Kukrani, who was given a life sentence, is now free on bail. His and 15 other people’s convictions have been upheld by the Gujarat High Court.
Omprakash Tiwari, a two-term municipal councillor from Naroda who ran for the position in the 2017 election on a Congress ticket, has been nominated by Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party.
The BJP has set a goal of 140 of the 182 seats in the Assembly, despite the fact that their representation in the state assembly has been progressively declining since 2002. The party got 99 seats in 2018, 77 of which were in Congress.
The campaign’s spokesperson is PM Modi, the state’s most well-liked and longest-serving Chief Minister. He has spoken at 20 rallies in the state thus far, and seven more are slated before the second phase.