Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Amethi on Sunday where he will lay the foundation stone of an ordnance factory unit and also address a public meeting.
Amethi is the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Though Modi had visited Amethi during the campaigning for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it will be his first visit to the high-profile constituency after coming to power at the Centre in May 2014.
Earlier, in December last year, Modi had visited the neighbouring Rae Bareli constituency represented in the Lok Sabha by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The Amethi Lok Sabha constituency is being given a saffron hue ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit. Barring 1998, the Amethi parliamentary constituency has repeatedly elected Congress candidate.
As per official sources, Modi will address a public meeting in Kauhar area of Gauriganj and launch some projects besides laying foundation stone of a new unit of the Munshiganj Ordnance Factory, where Kalashnikov assault rifles will be made in collaboration with Russia.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had visited Amethi earlier this week to review preparations for the Prime Minister’s visit.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign, Modi had addressed a rally in Amethi on May 5. Bharatiya Janata Party had fielded Smriti Irani against Rahul Gandhi and though Irani lost the election, she had managed three lakh votes. Since then, Irani has been nurturing the constituency and is likely to contest again from there in the coming polls, expected to be held in April-May.
BJP state general secretary and convenor of the Prime Minister’s public meeting, Govind Narain Shukla, said, “It will be a historic meeting in Kauhar and over 1.25 lakh people are likely to attend it.”
In the 2017 UP assembly elections, the BJP had won four of the five assembly seats in Amethi Lok Sabha constituency. The Samajwadi Party had won one seat while the Congress had failed to open its account in the Gandhi bastion.
Meanwhile, Congress workers have objected to the white-washing of the wall paintings of their leader, Rahul Gandhi, near the meeting venue.
Gandhi’s representative, Chandrakant Dubey, said white-washing the paintings of the local MP was “very sad and unfortunate” and only showed the intolerance of BJP leaders and workers.