Ahead of UP polls, BJP to mark PM Modi’s birthday with mega outreach push

Varanasi will celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 76th birthday and 25 years in public office in grand style on Thursday with a mega show of strength of the BJP-led NDA bloc. As nationwide cleanliness drives, lighting lamps, blood donation camps, prayers and bike rallies take place throughout the country, NDA alliance leaders and chief ministers will convene at PM Modi’s parliamentary constituency. The event comes in the backdrop of Legislative Assembly polls scheduled next year in Uttar Pradesh.

The Varanasi-to-Vadnagar Seva Sankalp bike rally will be flagged off simultaneously with another travelling in the opposite direction from Vadnagar in Gujarat, Modi’s birthplace.  UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, along with NDA allies N Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP, Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena (Shinde), Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal and Chirag Paswan of the LJP, will attend the flag-off bike rally ceremony in Varanasi. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will flag off the Vadnagar-to-Varanasi leg in Gujarat, where CM Bhupendra Patel and other senior leaders will be present.

The rallies will begin on September 17 and culminate on October 7, the day he first took office as Gujarat CM in 2001. Under the ‘Varanasi to Vadnagar Seva Sankalp ’, the BJP aims to connect the Prime Minister’s birthplace with his karmabhoomi, Varanasi.

The bike rally will pass through 193 districts and around 1,159 villages across 10 States, covering approximately 40,000 kilometres. Around 1,000 young people from across the country are expected to participate in the yatra. Before the rally, the participants will perform a Jalabhishek of Lord Shiva at the Kashi Vishwanath Dham with Ganga water. Naidu is scheduled to visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple before attending the flag-off. During the bike rally, water from rivers across the country will be collected for jalabhishek at the Hatkeshwar Temple in Vadnagar and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi.

The bike rally is among a series of programmes the BJP has lined up across the country as it seeks to turn PM Modi’s birthday into the launch of a month-long outreach for the party. The party has planned some special events to mark Modi’s birthday and 25 years of public service. Three programmes — Youth Connect program, Modi@25, and Seva Pakhwada — have been planned so that the party directly reaches out to first-time voters, college youth, and Gen Z.

Coming ahead of key Assembly elections in UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, followed by elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in 2027, the BJP aims to use the occasion to showcase his political legacy and welfare initiatives to mobilise party cadres and reinforce his leadership image.

Through these mega events, the BJP is seeking to project his 25-year public career as a continuous commitment to selfless service, or ‘seva’. The scale may also be a strategic response to the recent public outreach by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi,

Elsewhere, BJP president Nitin Nabin will light a lamp at Ram Ghat in Ujjain as part of the nationwide programmes. The party has also appealed to people to light lamps at their homes in the evening as a gesture of gratitude for PM Modi’s years in public office.  Delhi CM Rekha Gupta has appealed to Delhiites to light a lamp on September 17 and pray for the PM’s good health, long life and continued strength. 

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will light 1.25 lakh lamps along the Kartavya Path, organise a blood drive at Thyagaraj Stadium and prayer.