Gujarat polls: People await PM Modi's roadshow in Valsad
Nov 19, 2022
Valsad (Gujarat) [India], November 19 : People of Valsad district in the poll-bound state of Gujarat on Saturday were excited amid news of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in their district.
Residents of Vapi city of Gujarat are waiting to welcome PM Modi.
As the Assembly election in Gujarat inches closer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a roadshow in the Vapi city of Valsad district in Gujarat in a bid to repeat the 'Double Engine' government in Gujarat.
PM Modi will also address a rally here. 
"I am a big fan of Narendra Modi since childhood and I have always seen him on TV. Today I am getting a chance to see him for the first time that's why I have come here. I posed as Mother India today," a girl student, who came to watch the roadshow said.
Vapi Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), BN Dave inspected the route of the rally of the Prime Minister along with the Superintendent of Police (SP) and the organizer of the roadshow.
"We are inspecting the route and all other arrangements for the rally of the Prime Minister. We are checking whatever preparations have been made by the administration and the organizer.
Police are also ready accordingly. As a precautionary measure, we have barricaded the area as it is a roadshow huge number of people are expected to participate. We will allow only people after the security check. They all will be allowed to be in one place," the Vapi DSP told ANI.
Jagdish Bhatu, an organizer and a local resident of the city said that they are ready to welcome PM Modi wholeheartedly.
"We are deeply grateful that the Prime Minister has chosen this path and will be passing through here. We wholeheartedly welcome him. We are fortunate that he is passing through here and we have got the opportunity to do preparations. We were always looking for such an opportunity and today we got it. We have tried to make people aware of the development works done by our prime minister," said Bhatu.
He further said that the atmosphere over here has turned festive and people are excited and ready to welcome PM Modi.
Another local and a member of the organizing team said that all the preparations have been completed.
"We are ready with all the preparations for welcoming PM Modi. We have put up flags on the route of the roadshow and people will shower flower petals on him. This is a good opportunity for us that we are preparing for PM Modi, we wholeheartedly welcome him," said Manish Jangir.
Nilesh Gabani, another local said that the people here want the Prime Minister to stay and meet them.
"Full preparation is going on. We want PM Modi to stay here and come to meet us. All the people, who will welcome PM Modi will come in a traditional dress here, we are warmly welcoming him. We have full hope that PM Modi will stop here to meet us," said Gabani.
Ahead of the Assembly elections, the Prime Minister is expected to participate in at least eight programmes crisscrossing the state from Saurashtra to Surat.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to hold rallies in Gujarat's Saurashtra for three consecutive days from November 20 to November 22.
More than 1.5 lakh people will participate in these rallies, said the source.
The Prime Minister will conduct three rallies in Saurashtra on November 20, two in South Gujarat and Saurashtra on November 21 and two in Saurashtra on November 22.
On November 20, after visiting the Somnath Temple, he is scheduled to address four rallies in the Saurashtra region. Venues have been finalised at Veraval, Dhorarji, Amreli and Botad.
Incidentally, in the last assembly elections, the BJP was not able to win a single seat in these assembly constituencies in Saurashtra. The BJP won the state polls but wasn't able to breach this bastion that has traditionally voted for Congress.
On Day 3, PM Modi will hold three rallies in Surendranagar, Bharuch and Navsari.
While Bharuch was the constituency of the former Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the past, the BJP state president CR Patil who hails from Navsari has been winning this Lok Sabha seat with huge margins.
Notably, Congress Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi is also expected to visit Navsari on November 21, the same day that PM Modi is expected to be in Navsari.
PM Modi, who hails from Gujarat, is also expected to have a closed-door meeting with the state leaders during his stay here to further boost the party in the western state.
In Gujarat, the BJP party has been in power for the last 27 years with Modi being the longest-serving chief minister of the state.
This time the party under the leadership of Modi, Amit Shah and CR Patil is aiming to fetch more than 140 seats.
The state has been a BJP stronghold for long and the party is confident of coming back and forming the government for the seventh term.
Out of the 182 assembly seats in the state, 48 are in this region, where polling is to be held in the first phase itself on December 1.
In the 2017 assembly elections, the Congress won 28 seats here on the basis of the support it got due to the Patidar movement. Whereas, the number of MLAs in the Bharatiya Janata Party had come down from 30 in 2012 to just 19 here.
The state of Gujarat which has 182 assembly constituencies will go for polling in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be on December 8, which coincides with Himachal Pradesh's result date.
