Prime Minister Narendra Modi's over 50-km-long roadshow in Ahmedabad city, where polling will be held in the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections, started off on Thursday evening. The massive roadshow has been touted as the country 'longest city roadshow' by the party.
The roadshow, which has been titled Pushpanjali Yatra, started from Naroda village and will conclude at Chandkheda. During the yatra which has four legs, Modi offered floral tributes to statues of leaders, including Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay and Subhash Chandra Bose.
A large number of people standing on both sides of the route welcomed Modi and greeted him with flowers during the roadshow that began around 5.20 pm. Standing on a specially-designed vehicle, the prime minister waved back at the crowd.
The mega roadshow will cover the eastern side of Ahmedabad and ends at the IOC circle in the Chandkheda area on the city's western side, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in a release.
The roadshow is scheduled to pass through various parts of the city, including Hirawadi, Hatkeshwar, Maninagar, Danilimda, Jivraj Park, Ghatlodia, Naranpura and Sabarmati. It will cover 13 seats of Ahmedabad city as well as Gandhinagar-South, the release said.
During the massive roadshow, PM Modi stopped his convoy to give way to an ambulance. It is not the first time that Prime Minister Modi stopped his convoy to facilitate the movement of an ambulance.Last month, during his visit to Himachal Pradesh for campaigning for assembly polls, PM Modi stopped his convoy to give way to an ambulance in Chambi.
Ahead of the roadshow, PM Modi addressed three public meetings -- in Kalol of Panchmahals, Bodeli of Chhotaudepur and Himmatnagar of Sabarkantha district.
He said there is a competition among Congress leaders as to who will use the most abusive words against him, referring to the opposition 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 last month.
The first of the two-phased Gujarat polls was held today in 89 Assembly seats of the Saurashtra region, which saw a voter turnout of over 59 per cent. The second phase of polling will be held on December 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8, along with Himachal Pradesh.
