Notches up over 200 rallies, roadshows
KANYAKUMKARI (TAMIL NADU), May 30: Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his 45-hour-long meditation at the famed Vivekananda Rock Memorial here this evening
After arriving from nearby Thiruvananthapuram by a helicopter, Modi worshipped at the Bhagavathi Amman temple and reached the rock memorial by a ferry service and started meditation that is scheduled to go on till June 1.
Clad in a dhoti and a white shawl, Modi prayed at the temple and circumambulated the ‘garbhagriha’. Priests performed a special ‘arthi’ and he was given temple ‘prasad’ that included a shawl and a framed photograph of the presiding deity of the temple.
Later, he reached the rock memorial by a ferry service operated by the state government-run shipping corporation and began his meditation at the ‘dhyan mandapam.’ Before he embarked on the dhyan exercise, for a while, Modi stood on the stairs leading to the mandapam that offers breathtaking views of the sea that surrounds the memorial from all sides.
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The Prime Minister showered flowers on the portraits of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, mother Sri Sarada Devi and also paid floral tributes to Swami Vivekananda, whose life-size statue on a high pedestal adores the mandapam. Modi later commenced the sadhana (spiritual practice) in the mandapam.
Speaking to reporters at Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai termed PM Modi’s visit to the memorial as an out-and-out ‘private’ visit. “It is Prime Minister’s personal visit,” he said, adding that was why his party leaders and cadres did not take part in the event.
Ahead of his departure on June 1, Modi is likely to visit the Thiruvalluvar statue, next to the memorial. Both the memorial and 133-ft statue were built on tiny islets, that are separate and mound-like rocky formations in the sea.
While outfits including Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam staged a black flag demonstration in Madurai opposing Modi, social media platform ‘X’ also witnessed a flood of #GoBackModi posts, amid political opposition to the broadcast of his meditation in view of the final (seventh) phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections on June 1.
All arrangements, including heavy security, are in place for Modi’s 45-hour stay at the famed memorial named after the revered Hindu saint. This is the first time the prime minister will be staying at the memorial, a monument built in tribute to Swami Vivekananda, who meditated over the rocks inside the sea towards the end of 1892.
While the PM chose Kedarnath cave to reflect and meditate following the end of campaign in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, now he has chosen a spiritually significant place in the southernmost tip in the mainland of the country.
Following the culmination of the hectic Lok Sabha election campaign in which he presided and addressed a multitude of political events such as roadshows and rallies, Modi will be meditating in an ambience of quietude, where probably only the sound of breaking waves could be heard.
While security personnel teemed the memorial premises, security has been beefed up in the entire Kanyakumari district and about 2,000 police personnel have been deployed, besides heightened vigil by the Tamil Nadu police’s Coastal Security Group, Coast Guard and the Navy.
Modi’s meditation from the evening of Thursday to the evening of June 1 at dhyan mandapam is the place where Vivekananda — a spiritual icon admired by the PM — is believed to have had a divine vision about ‘Bharat Mata’. (PTI)
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended his whirlwind Lok Sabha poll campaign with a rally in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur on Thursday, closing out his electioneering the way he began — by focussing on a region where he has invested heavily over the years for the BJP to make a mark outside its strongholds.
Modi notched up a total of 206 public-outreach programmes, including rallies and roadshows, since the Election Commission (EC) announced the poll schedule on March 16.
The Prime Minister surpassed his nearly-145 public engagements on the stump during the 2019 polls by a big margin. The campaign period this time was of 76 days, compared to the 68 days in the polls held five years ago.
When the EC announced the polls, Modi was on a political tour of southern India, covering all five States in three days between March 15 and March 17. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is eying to boost its fortunes in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh — three states where it won no seat in 2019 — and looking to maintain its strength in Karnataka and increase its tally in Telangana.
The extent of his barnstorming campaign’s success will only be known on June 4, when the poll results are scheduled to be declared.
At 73, Modi was not only ahead of any other leader in terms of the sheer number of rallies and distance he covered, but continued to be the biggest vote magnet for his party whose comments, panned by critics and lapped up by the BJP’s ardent supporters, set the narratives of the election.
The Prime Minister also gave a total of 80 media interviews, averaging more than one daily since the polls began. (PTI)
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