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PM Narendra Modi would be taking a holy dip at the Sangam around 11 am on Wednesday and will offer prayers to Maa Ganga
PM Modi at the Sangam Nose in 2024 (left) and during the 2019 Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. (PTI File)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits always have a larger audience in mind. So, when PM Modi visits the Mahakumbh at Prayagraj on Wednesday while voting for the Delhi elections is on, the mix of spirituality and subtle political messaging would be lost on none.
Modi earlier visited Prayagraj during the Kumbh in 2019, on February 24 that year, just before the general elections that year. Dressed in trademark saffron on the occasion, Modi had washed the feet of sanitation workers which became a memorable picture. In fact, on the day of polling for the last phase of the 2019 general elections, Modi had visited the Kedarnath and Badrinath shrines in Uttarakhand, before spending the previous night meditating in a cave near the Kedarnath shrine. In the general election results that came soon after, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scored a historic victory with 302 seats.
The BJP would be hoping for a similar stroke of luck and blessings when Modi visits the Mahakumbh on Wednesday. The PM will be taking a holy dip at the Sangam around 11 AM and will offer prayers to Maa Ganga.
Delhi is a tough election battle for the BJP where the party has been out of power for the past 27 years and Hindutva has not been a major factor in past Delhi elections. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be present alongside Modi like he was present during the recent visit to the Mahakumbh by Home Minister Amit Shah, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar, and the Bhutan King.
After the campaign for the 2024 general elections ended, the PM had spent 45 hours meditating in silence at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari on May 30, 2024, just before votes for the last phase were cast on June 1.
In 2018 too, Modi had visited the famous Pashupatinath and Mukti Narayan temples in Kathmandu, on the day votes were cast in Karnataka in the state elections that year. The BJP emerged as the single-largest party in those elections. The Congress then objected to his visit, as they did during Modi’s Kedarnath visit in 2019. However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) waved the green flag at PM’s Kedarnath visit, saying it did not violate the Model Code of Conduct.
Modi will spend only a couple of hours at the Mahakumbh on Wednesday, but the BJP hopes the impact lasts much longer during the day as Delhi votes. The opposition won’t like that.
