Surat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday received a rousing reception as he embarked on an 11- kilometre-long roadshow in Gujarat's Surat, a stronghold of the Patel community.
The roadshow turned out to be a mega outreach for Modi in the election year as the BJP has decided to project him as its face during the state Assembly polls, slated later this year.
Modi began his two-day Gujarat visit with the roadshow after arriving Sunday evening. This is his first visit to the city after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014.
Upon his arrival at the Surat airport, he was greeted by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and other state leaders before Modi started on 11-km-long journey to the Government Circuit House in Athwalines area where he would stay for the night.
Surat has a sizable population of the Patel community and had witnessed a large-scale violence during the quota agitation in 2015.
The Prime Minister was welcomed by various community organisations, youth and women at 'Swagat Points' set up every 200 metres.
An 11-km-long 'saree', with the names of government schemes printed on it, was tied along the route.
Along the route, sand sculptures on some of the themes of the Modi government like "Save Girl Child", "Girl Child Education", "Digital India", were also put up.
Modi is slated to inaugurate Kiran Multi Super Speciality Hospital and Research Centre, built by a private trust, in the city on Monday morning. He would then go to Hira Bourse SEZ at Icchapur in the district to inaugurate a diamond polishing unit of Hari Krishna Export Private Limited.
The PM would also go to Bajipura village in Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and ice-cream plant of Sumul Dairy, and lay foundation stone for dairy products plant at Nava Pardi.
He will also address a large gathering there. The state BJP unit claims that more than four lakh persons, including three lakh women from tribal-dominated areas, would attend the gathering.
Modi will then visit Silvassa town in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, where he will address a gathering apart from inaugurating a few projects.
From there, he will head to Botad in Saurashtra to inaugurate phase-1 of Sauni project for Botad and surrounding districts as well as to lay foundation stone for the phase-2.
In August last year, Modi inaugurated the first phase of ambitious Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (Sauni) Project from Jamnagar.
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