Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s road show in the city was on Monday evening, which concluded his campaign for the November 30 elections, was a rousing and raucous event for which people in their thousands — in near rapture amidst an electric atmosphere — thronged one of the main thoroughfares of Hyderabad, at the end of his three-day electioneering blitzkrieg.
The Modi roadshow began at RTC crossroads and ended at the Veer Savarkar statue at Kacheguda crossroads, and all along the 1.8 km route, crowds waiting for the Modi cavalcade to pass by, danced to the city’s famous teen-maar drum beats and when he finally passed by, showered him with marigold flowers and petals.
A beaming Modi, accompanied by an equally beaming state BJP president and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, waved to the crowds as shouts of ‘Modi, Modi, Modi’ rent the air. Many of the people came carrying Modi cutouts, wore saffron turbans, shirts and dresses and in a huge relief for the large number of police personnel posted along the route, behaved themselves.
While part of the crowd all along the route comprised hardcore BJP supporters, thousands of others were common people who lined up, carrying with them bags of marigold petals to shower their favourite leader with their adulation. The reception was clearly not lost on Modi who waved to the people and offered namaste as his convoy moved on.
A woman, carrying her six-month-old daughter who waited to see Modi at the YMCA circle in Narayanguda, said she was there with her whole family. “I wanted my daughter to see Modi,” she said. Though her family hoped they could hold the child high for Modi to see her, the rush of the crowd meant that she stayed back, rocking her baby in her arms as Modi passed by while her family showered the Prime Minister with flowers, as did hundreds of others.
Several late comers were seen running along the barricaded section of the road to catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister.
After the roadshow, Modi offered prayers at the Gurdwara Saheb in Ameerpet on the occasion of Gurupurab, the birthday of Guru Nanak. Later, he attended a Karthika Deepotsavam event at NTR Stadium next to Indira Park where he spoke about the significance of how each lamp that is lit drives away ignorance and darkness.
