New Delhi, Sept. 16 -- NDA leaders including Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union minister Chirag Paswan will gather in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi on Thursday to mark his 76th birthday and 25 years in public office. The leaders will attend the flag-off of a bike rally to Vadnagar in Gujarat, Modi's birthplace, as the BJP begins its month-long 'Seva Sankalp Abhiyan' featuring service and public outreach programmes across the country.
Naidu, who heads the Telugu Desam Party, is scheduled to visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple before joining the Varanasi programme, while Shinde has also confirmed his participation. Chirag Paswan, chief of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and other NDA leaders are expected at the event. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, however, will not attend, according to his office. Rajnath Singh will flag off the Varanasi-to-Vadnagar bike rally, while Home Minister Amit Shah will simultaneously launch the Vadnagar-to-Varanasi rally in Gujarat. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Shinde, Union minister Anupriya Patel, Gujarat BJP president Jagdish Vishwakarma and BJP Yuva Morcha president Hemang Joshi are among those scheduled to be present in Vadnagar.
The two rallies will start on September 17 and conclude on October 7, covering nearly 40,000 km through 193 districts and around 1,159 villages across 10 states. Around 1,000 young people are expected to participate. Organisers said the riders will travel through different parts of the country before reaching their respective destinations.
The journeys will also be accompanied by public service activities, including cleanliness and tree plantation drives, water conservation initiatives and campaigns for a drug-free, tuberculosis-free and plastic-free India.
The programmes in Varanasi and Vadnagar form part of the BJP's 'Seva Diwas' observance. In Delhi, BJP president Nitin Nabin will inaugurate a blood donation camp at the party headquarters before travelling to Madhya Pradesh for programmes in Indore and Ujjain. A nationwide cleanliness campaign is also planned.
The party will also organise lamp-lighting programmes in the evening, with 'Aashirwad Ka Diya' to be lit at hundreds of locations. Nabin will light the lamp at Ram Ghat in Ujjain.
The 'Seva Sankalp Abhiyan' will continue from September 17 to October 17 and include welfare outreach, exhibitions, seminars and programmes focused particularly on young people. Nabin is also scheduled to launch a statewide public welfare campaign under the Swamitva Scheme in Indore and attend the Bhasma Aarti at Mahakaleshwar Temple on Friday.
Modi served as Gujarat chief minister from October 2001 until May 2014, when he became prime minister. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Varanasi in 2014 and retained the seat in 2019 and 2024.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.