PM Narendra Modi is currently on a two-day trip in Uttar Pradesh to kickstart the 2019 general election campaign. The visit, his second to UP in 15 days, included projects over Rs 34,000 crore. His two-day visit included laying the foundation of the Purvanchal Expressway Project in Azamgarh. He is also expected to dedicate Bansagar Dam Major Canal project of Rs 3500 crore and also 21 projects of Rs 450 crore and lay the foundation of 12 projects of Rs 487.66 crore for Varanasi.
Yogi Adityanath has stated that the PM will lay the foundation of Purvanchal Expressway project which will be completed in less than 30 months. The Expressway is also supposed to have an airstrip near Ayodhya where landing and taking off flights of the fighter jets and also Boeing planes will also be possible
The PM is supposed to address a public meeting in his Varanasi constituency at Raja Talab area on Saturday to dedicate projects and schemes worth over Rs 900 crore. Modi will supposedly informally launch his campaign from Raja Talab, the same place from where he had launched his campaign in 2014.
“The Prime Minister is expected to reach Azamgarh from Varanasi on an IAF chopper at around 1430 hrs and stay for around 75 minutes during which he will lay the foundation of the 340 kilometer-long Purvanchal Expressway and address a public meeting,” BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.
This step of the BJP has been highly criticised by Samajwadi Party leader, Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav stated that Varanasi shouldn’t have been dropped from the project. This tussle has been prevailing in both the parties as both try to take credit for the projects undertaken, keeping in mind the effects it will have in the 2019 polls.
“I am sure even the Prime Minister is not aware of the fact that his constituency Varanasi has been dropped from the Purvanchal Expressway that he is inaugurating today. Not just Varanasi but also the hometown of CM, Gorakhpur, and Ayodhya have been dropped from the Purvanchal Expressway,” Yadav said.
The government in its defense has stated that “it had taken up the project to help develop eastern UP” as it “.. will connect the state capital Lucknow with economically less developed districts like Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar and Amethi…”