After PM Modi, SP chief holds roadshow in Varanasi

VARANASI: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav conducted a road show here late Friday evening, a little after the conclusion of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi's

campaign, ahead of the March 7 polling.

Standing atop his ‘Samajwadi Rath', Yadav began his roadshow from the Rath Yatra roundabout in the pilgrim city and moved around in the areas covering the three Assembly seats -- Cantonment, Varanasi North and Varanasi South. He campaigned on the route different than the one taken by Modi earlier.

Yadav was accompanied by the three candidates from these constituencies – Pooja Yadav, Ashfaq Ahmad Dabloo and

Kishan Dixit

– respectively.

The roadshow, that began at 8 pm, will cover an area stretching about 2 km and will pass through Gurubagh and Laksha and end at Gadauliya, party sources said. Akhilesh will also visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple to pay his obeisance to Lord Shiva, they said.

Despite late hours, people came out in large numbers to greet Yadav. Earlier in the day, SP's district president Vishnu Sharma had alleged that though he had sought permission from 5 pm to 10 pm for the party chief's event, the Varanasi administration permitted them to hold the event only from 8 pm to 10 pm.

The SP had lost all eight seats in Varanasi in the previous Assembly elections. This time, it has fielded its candidates in four constituencies and allotted the remaining four seats to its allies – two each to Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and former minister On Prakash Rajbhar's Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party.

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