Now It's Time for 'Rashtra Pratishtha': After Opening Ram Mandir, Modi Kicks Off 2024 Poll Rally from UP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday kicked off the campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha election by launching development projects worth over Rs 19,100 crore at a rally in Bulandshahr in Western Uttar Pradesh.

The electoral rally comes just three days after the grand ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony at the new Ram temple in Ayodhya.

While addressing the public in Bulandshar, PM Modi cited news reports claiming ‘prime minister will sound poll bugle for upcoming elections’ and said, “Modi sounds bugle of development. Modi doesn’t need to sound the poll bugle, the public does this for Modi.”

The prime minister further targeted the oppostion parties over their ‘false promises’ of ‘Gareebi Hatao’ and said, “After independence for a long time people raised slogans of Garibi Hatao & some kept lying in the name of social justice. But the poor saw that only some people got rich & it benefitted their politics…But the situation in the country is changing (PM) Modi is serving you with all honesty…”

Before arriving in Uttar Pradesh, PM Modi also addressed the first-time voters on National Voters’ Day via video conferencing.

“When I meet major world leaders, it is not I alone who meets them but 140 crore Indians are with me. Today, the Indian passport is seen with pride across the world,” he said.

PM Narendra Modi further said, “Today, people talk about credibility, not corruption; success stories, not scams. Earlier India was on the list of fragile five economies. But today, Bharat is the fifth largest economy in the world. In the coming years, India will become the top three economies in the world.”

According to a Hindustan Times report, the BJP has planned two-month-long events focusing on the Ram temple to mobilise support for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

“It’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first rally in Uttar Pradesh after Pran Pratishtha of Lord Ram in Ayodhya. The BJP has mobilised its resources for the success of the rally and organised a fortnight-long public contact drive in West U.P. to ensure that people come in strength for the PM’s rally,” Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying.

“The BJP hopes the Prime Minister’s rally will give a boost to the party campaign,” another party leader said.

BJP has claimed that around five lakh people will attend PM Modi’s rally in Bulandshahr’s Navada village, a TOI report mentioned.

According to an official release from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), PM Modi is expected to inaugurate developmental projects at around 1:45 pm in Bulandshahr. Later in the day around 5:30 pm, Modi will welcome French President Emmanuel Macron in Jaipur.

Bulandshahr has a huge population of Lodh Rajputs, Jats, Gujjars, Muslims and Dalits, all of whom are considered BJP’s traditional support base. The BJP had won eight out of 14 seats in Western UP, losing the remaining to the SP-BSP alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The party, however, had registered victory at all the seven assembly seats in Bulandshahr- Anupshahar, Dibai, Khurja, Bulandshahr Sadar, Syana, Shikarpur and Sikandrabad, in the 2022 Assembly polls in UP.

Meanwhile, the opposition SP and the Congress have also focused on the western UP trying to win the support of the Muslims, Jats and Dalits to challenge the BJP.