Live: Modi foresees a ‘Congress-free’ India in 2014

2:40 pm: Modi starts by saying he sees a Congress-free India, praises UP for helping building Sardar Patel statue

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate started by promising that he foresaw the Congess being kicked out of power and also thanked the farmers of Uttar Pradesh for contributing to the building of the humongous Sardar Patel statue in Gujarat.

He also told the hundreds at the rear of the ground to stay where they were rather than trying to push forward.

Modi's speech seems to be on lines similar to previous ones where he listed the historical importance of the place he was at and said he bowed to it.

2:00 pm: Modi's rally to take on Samajwadi party at their home turf

BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will address a massive rally in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh at noon today. Around three lakh people are expected to attend the 'Vijay Shankhnad Rally'.

Security has been stepped up in Gorakhpur ahead of the event. PTI Before reaching the rally site, Modi will halt at the Gorakhnath temple and perform 'puja' there, the district magistrate's office in Gorakhpur said. A state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson said on Wednesday that Modi would also make a brief stopover in Varanasi where he will arrive in a special aircraft from Ahmedabad.

PTI

After interacting with party workers at the airport, he will leave for the rally to be held in Manbela, Gorakhpur, in a chopper, party leaders said.

Gorakhpur is 270 km from the state capital Lucknow.

Inspector General of Police (law and order) Amrendra Singh Senger told IANS that four superintendents of police (SP) rank officials, eight additional SPs and 13 deputy SPs have been deployed for supervising the rally. Modi has so far addressed rallies in Kanpur (Oct 19, 2013), Jhansi (Oct 25), Bahraich (Nov 8), Agra (Nov 21) and Varanasi (Dec 20) in the Hindi heartland in a bid to galvanize the party cadres.

He will address one more rally in Meerut on 2 February after which the series of "Shankhnaad" rallies will culminate in a "Maha rally" in Lucknow on March 2.

BJP has 10 Lok Sabha seats from the state and hopes to revisit the 57-seat mark of 1998. Modi is spending considerable time in these rallies and his close aide and former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah has been made the UP in-charge by the party's national leadership.

With inputs from IANS