Carrying out his campaign trail in his Lok Sabha constituency ahead of the last phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on March 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at Varanasi’s Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on Saturday.
Huge crowd of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters greeted him in front of the university as he drove inside the campus and continued his roadshow to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
PM Modi offered prayers at the Kashi temple amidst the protests outside the Kashi temple as BJP workers demanded removal of SP posters. He also offered prayers at the Kaal Bhairav Temple before addressing an election rally in Jaunpur at 3pm.
Besides Modi’s visit, the city is also buzzing for the series of rallies and roadshows to be held later during the day jointly by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati in Rohaniya.
Security forces have been beefed up in the city for the high-profile rallies.
Hours before PM's visit, a minor scuffle between BJP and SP workers broke outside the Singh Dwar in BHU campus.
Also some SP workers arranged a stage in the middle of the route road blocking the way for the PM's visit and the police had to forcefully remove it. Seven SP workers.were detained in the incident.
The sixth phase of the state assembly elections is underway on Saturday for the 49 assembly seats.
The election results of the state will be announced on March 11.