Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed the first of the two legs of his road show in the Karnataka capital on Saturday with four days to go for the Assembly polls.
In the first leg, Modi covered 26km, with another 10km to be covered on Sunday. Chants of “Bharat Mata ki jai” and “Jai Bajrang Bali” rent the air throughout the route where an estimated 10 lakh people had gathered on either side of the roads.
The Prime Minister and his party have been raising the “Jai Bajrang Bali” slogan in campaign events ever since the Congress pledged in its election manifesto on Tuesday to ban organisations that spread hate and named the Bajrang Dal, among others.
While the BJP is equating the Bajrang Dal with Bajrang Bali, or Lord Hanuman, the Congress has been maintaining that the two are not connected at all.
The roadshow began at Konanakunte in Bommanahalli, an industrial suburb, around 10am, covered 13 Assembly constituencies before culminating at the Kadu Malleshwara Temple in Malleshwaram, one of the oldest neighbourhoods and a BJP pocket borough, around 1.30pm.
Other participants at Modi’s road show in Bangalore on Saturday. PTI
Modi is expected to begin the second leg from near Hindustan Aeronautics Limited around 8.30am on Sunday.
Thousands of party supporters gathered on both sides of the roads while Modi rode an open van painted in saffron and greeted the people. Marigold petals were showered on the Prime Minister, who wore a Mysore peta (a headgear).
Lok Sabha members P.C. Mohan (Bangalore Central) and Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South) rode along with Modi in the open vehicle that passed through streets donning saffron banners, buntings and BJP flags.
As the lead campaigner of the BJP trying to buck anti-incumbency, Modi had already toured the state thrice for two days each before resuming his campaign on Friday morning.
The roadshow schedule was tweaked to cover much of it on Saturday itself on account of the NEET exams on Sunday. Many on the roads faced difficulty in commuting in the Bangalore south and central areas due to the heavy security cover.
The south and central districts of the city experienced long traffic snarls since many arterial roads had been blocked for the roadshow. Congress worker Srivatsa tweeted that ambulances were among vehicles stranded in some places.
“Ambulances stuck, students stuck, large parts of the city barricaded with main arterial roads blocked…. Nothing is going to help Modiji — you had no answer when people questioned you about 40% commission. You waving at BJP workers makes zero impact to the voting choice of common people,” he tweeted, referring to the charges of graft against the state government.
The Congress has rescheduled Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow from the afternoon to 8.30pm on Sunday in Shivajinagar, Bangalore, considering the possibility of heavy traffic snarls that would impede the movement of students writing the NEET exams.