PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah rallies added zing to BJP’s poll mission

BHOPAL: The BJP put out a grand show of strength with PM Narendra Modi addressing eight public meetings and leading two grand road-shows for the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh.

In the meantime, Union home minister Amit Shah led a road-show in Chhindwara and addressed five public meetings in the state.

However, the major focus of the BJP top brass was during the first three phases of polling. The party central leaders -- except for PM Modi who addressed two public meetings on a single day in Dhar and Khargone -- hardly showed-up to canvass for candidates for the fourth phase of elections held in the Malwa-Nimar region.

But the party put in a lot of efforts, shows, rallies and meetings in the first three phases of the polls. Two road shows by PM Modi, first in Jabalpur on April 7 and another in Bhopal on April 24 and then he also addressed massive public rallies in Balaghat before the first phase of polling. Thereafter. he went to Pipariya in Hoshangabad on April 14 and Damoh on April 19 for the second phase. PM Modi addressed election campaign public rallies in Sagar and Harda (in the Betul Lok Sabha constituency) on April 24, Morena on April 25 before the third phase polling and Khargone and Dhar on May 7 for the fourth phase.

Besides a road-show in an open-rath in Chhindwara, Amit Shah also addressed public meetings in Mandla and Katni on April 11. He addressed a public meeting in Indore on April 24 and two other rallies in Ashokenagar and Rajgarh on April 26. Shah, although, did not campaign after Rajgarh, where the BJP took on Congress’ high-profile candidate and former CM Digvijaya Singh.

BJP National president JP Nadda addressed seven public meetings in support of BJP candidates in Jabalpur, Shahdol, Sidhi, Chhindwara, Tikamgarh, Rewa and Satna. He did not come to Madhya Pradesh after April 23, for phase four campaigning.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh campaigned as a star-campaigner in six public meetings between April 6 and 30. He also did not come to MP for fourth phase ofcampaigning.

Lok Sabha elections: 14.97% voting till 9am during fourth phase of polls in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal reports 14.97% voter turnout till 9am in the fourth phase of parliamentary elections across 8 constituencies in Malwa Nimar region. Chief electoral officer of Madhya Pradesh mentions 18,007 polling booths with webcasting and CCTV cameras installed at 12,130 booths. Voting started at 7 am, with 1.63 crore voters, including 82.48 lakh males, 81.

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Campaigning for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections ended with PM Modi targeting Congress over corruption issues. Supreme Court granted interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal. Key constituencies in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir went to polls. Akhilesh Yadav, Mahua Moitra, and Asaduddin Owaisi were key candidates in this phase.

Campaigning loses its star quotient in fourth phase in MP

The fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls in Indore-Ujjain division saw national level star campaigners PM Narendra Modi and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi holding only two public meetings each, with both parties roping in state-level leaders in Malwa-Nimar region. Former CM Kamal Nath and union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia were missing from the campaign in Indore-Ujjain division.

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