Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to clock up the air miles in the months leading up to the Lok Sabha polls later in the year, with trips scheduled for almost every State in India before mid-March.
After visits to Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep and Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Maharashtra, followed by Bihar on January 13 and possibly Jharkhand following that.
Sources in the BJP said while the January 22 consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was a major undertaking by the Sangh Parivar, the travel schedule would be going on side by side. The aim was to have Mr. Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda visit almost all the States before the announcement of poll dates.
Mr. Nadda is in Assam on Wednesday for the BJP’s State executive meet and a core committee meet of the State unit of the party, followed by a visit to Arunachal Pradesh, again meeting the State unit’s core group. Arunachal Pradesh will also go to Assembly polls along with the Lok Sabha elections.
Road show
“The plan is to have one round of visits by Prime Minister Modi, with a public function and a road show in the places that he is visiting, and all before dates for the polls are announced,” said a source. What visits by senior leadership does, according to the source, is to pump up the BJP workers for the contest ahead.
The BJP has drawn up elaborate plans for its campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, first with party workers being mobilised, and then Lok Sabha constituency-wise visits of senior party leaders who have been made in charge of clusters of 4-5 Lok Sabha seats.
Interestingly, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, with his Bharat Nyay Yatra, from east to west India, is also going to be hitting the road in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
