As a showstopper of his whirlwind campaigning for Gujarat polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to hold a mega roadshow of 50 kilometers across the Ahmedabad city today.
The roadshow, which will begin around 3.30 in the afternoon, will pass through 13 assembly constituencies of the Ahmedabad district and one constituency of Gandhinagar district.
The Gujarat elections are being held in two phases, with the voting for the first phase taking place today, i.e. Thursday. The second phase of voting will take place on December 5. Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts will vote in the second phase. The PM is scheduled to hold a couple of more public meetings on December 2 before the deadline for campaigning ends on December 3.
A BJP functionary informed that the significance of the PM’s roadshow in Ahmedabad is to energise the voters and make them connect with their favourite leader. “This roadshow will set a record as PM’s longest roadshow ever,” the party official said.
Earlier on November 27, Modi held a roadshow in Surat city. Surat, Gujarat’s second largest city after Ahmedabad, votes in the first phase. The constituencies that will be covered in the PM’s roadshow include Naroda, Thakkarbapa Nagar, Bapunagar, Nikol, Amraiwadi, Maninagar, Danilimda, Jamalpur-Khadia, Ellisbridge, Vejalpur, Ghatlodia, Naranpura, Sabarmati, and Gandhinagar-South.
In the 2017 polls, out of these 13 constituencies in Ahmedabad and one constituency of Gandhinagar, BJP had won 11, including the Gandhinagar-South constituency. Also, the saffron party had enjoyed comfortable margins that ranged between 11,500 to 1,17,750 votes across these seats.
The three seats that went to the Congress included Bapunagar, Jamalpur-Khadia, and Danilimda but with relatively narrow margins in the range of 3000 to 32,000 votes.
Some prominent names in the fray include Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel from the Ghatlodia constituency, sitting Minister Jagdish Vishwakarma from the Nokol constituency, and some first-timers like BJP candidate from Gandhinagar-South Alpesh Thakor and Payal Kukrani - daughter of Naroda patia riots convict Manoj Kukrani from Naroda constituency.
From the Congress camp, sitting MLAs Himmatsinh Patel, Sailesh Parmar, and Imran Khedawala are contesting from Bapunagar, Danilimda, and Jamalpur constituencies, respectively.
The Prime Minister’s roadshow will also cover the constituency of Bapunagar, which was one of the hotbeds during the Patidar reservation agitations of 2015. The seat, which is currently represented by Congress leader Himmatsinh Patel, has a new contender in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Bapunagar is one of the few seats in Gujarat where AAP is claiming a strong support base for its candidate.
What will start from Naroda Gam at 3.30 pm, the PM’s roadshow will conclude at around 6.30 pm at the newly developed area on the outskirts of the city - new Chandkheda that votes in the Gandhinagar-south constituency.