2014’s ‘Gangaputra’ to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva

Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Varanasi on Monday to thank residents for again ‘reposing faith’ in him, but unlike 2014, he will give the ‘Ganga Aarti’ a miss. Modi will pay obeisance to Lord Shiva at Kashi Vishwanath temple during his three-hour stay in the city on Monday, his first visit to the constituency after he swept the Lok Sabha elections. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath reached Varanasi on Sunday afternoon to review preparations for Modi’s visit.
District magistrate Surendra Singh said, PM Modi will reach Varanasi at 10 am and visit Kashi Vishwanath temple and then attend a function organised by BJP workers at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Trade Facilitation Centre (DDU-TFC) and leave for Delhi by 1 pm.
“After landing at LBS International Airport at 9.30 am, he will reach police lines by chopper. From there, he will go to the Vishwanath temple by road. He will then reach DDU-TFC in Lalpur to attend a function, before flying to Delhi,” said officials.
Modi, who contested 2014 LS polls from Kashi by mentioning - ‘Mujhe Maa Ganga ne Bulaya hai..’, had reached the city, a day after results on May 17, 2014 to attend ‘Ganga Aarti’ and perform Ganga Pujan at Dashaswamedh Ghat. Later, he visited the Vishwanath temple 20 times and visited ghats to launch the Clean India campaign, accompanied Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in the Ganga aarti and even took a boat ride with French president Emmanuel Macron.
Before filing his nomination on April 26, Modi, who had called himself ‘Gangaputra’ in 2014, had attended ‘Ganga aarti’ following a mega roadshow on April 25 when he performed Ganga pujan. On April 26, he sought blessings of Lord Kaal Bhairo before filing his nomination. Modi did not campaign for himself, but promised to come after winning the polls.
BJP’s Kashi region unit president Mahesh Chandra Srivastava said: “Due to back-to-back engagements in Delhi, Modi is pressed for time, but the people are eager to welcome their ‘Kashivasi’ in grand style.”
The party has made preparations to welcome him, including showering of flower petals on way to Kashi Vishwanath temple and DDU-TFC. It will be Modi’s second KVT visit after laying the foundation of the project on March 3.
Temple chief and executive officer Vishal Singh said: “As there are no instructions for special rituals and the time of stay of PM is also short, the temple has formed a team of priests to perform rituals, including shodashopachar.”