PM to visit Varanasi, may launch power & road sect schemes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi for a day-long tour on Friday. During his visit, he is likely to launch important schemes relating to power and road sectors.

He will also inaugurate a trauma centre inside the Banaras Hindu University premises and address a public meeting and meet party workers.

This will be the third visit of the PM to the ancient temple town after assuming office in May, 2014. The much-awaited tour comes nearly nine months after his previous trip on December 25 in 2014. His proposed tours were cancelled twice because of heavy rainfall on June 28 and on July 16.

Tight security arrangements are in place in view of Modi's visit and a team of the Special Protection Group (SPG) has been in the city since Tuesday. Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces is also in place to maintain law and order and control traffic during the nearly seven-hour-long tour of the PM.

The BJP, which won 71 out of 78 Lok Sabha seats it contested in UP last year, is likely to lead an aggressive campaign in the state where it will have to take on the formidable SP alongside Mayawati's BSP in the assembly polls, which are just a little more than a year away.

Modi's visit to this eastern UP town, from where the state's border with Bihar is just about a 100 kms away, may also find political resonance in the neighbouring province where assembly elections have been announced and where the Prime Minister is looking forward to lead his party to victory surmounting a formidable challenge posed by the alliance comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD (U), Lalu Prasad's RJD and Congress.