Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a hero's welcome on Sunday as he arrived in Surat for a two-day visit to his home state ahead of the state assembly polls later this year.

Large crowd including BJP supporters outside the Surat Airport waved BJP flags and chanted slogans welcoming Modi. A massive 11-km road-show was planned to welcome the Prime Minister, who is visiting the state 9th time since September 2016 and first time after thumping victory for the party in the recently concluded Assembly polls in five states.

Besides a slew of inaugurations that the Prime Minister will make, most significant will be the meetings with the local leaderships and key functionaries in the government to ensure victory in the next assembly polls. During his two-day stay in the State, PM will address about four public rallies, setting the tone for poll campaigning in the state. Notably, the BJP president, Amit Shah had already sounded the poll bugle from River front in Ahmedabad on March 29.

Among the inaugurations that Modi is likely to attend Monday, indicative is the inauguration of a privately-owned diamond facility at Ichchapore near Surat. Predominantly controlled by the Patidar community from Saurashtra, the diamond industry in Surat holds break-or-make prospects for ruling BJP, which is eyeing a repeat under the leadership of chief minister Vijay Rupani.

A section of Patidar community has been demanding OBC quota under Hardik Patel's leadership, who has gained significant ground in Surat and surrounding areas since he was granted bail in cases including sedition in July last year.

On the PM's itinerary from Monday is inauguration of Kiran Hospital run by Patidar community, followed by a public rally.

Later in the afternoon, Modi will inaugurate a cattle-feed plant, an ice-cream facility of Surat District Co-operative Milk Producers Union (Sumul) near Vyara. Post noon, Modi will fly to Botad in Saurashtra, where he will inaugurate the Phase-I of the Link-2 of ambitious irrigation project Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation (SAUNI).

Last year in August, PM had inaugurated the first phase of Link-1 of the scheme at Jamnagar.

As the water scarcity looms large on the state, the irrigation scheme is seen crucial to ensure adequate water supply from the Narmada canal to the water starved regions of Saurashtra. Around 115 dams of the region under this project would conserve water overflowing from the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam, brought to Saurashtra through a pipeline network.

In the evening on Monday, the Prime Minister will fly back to New Delhi.