Denied security clearance for roadshow, Narendra Modi to wind up Gujarat poll campaign with seaplane journey

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ahmedabad on Tuesday and undertake a sea-plane journey from the Sabarmati river on the last day of campaigning for the Gujarat Assembly elections. Modi will travel to Dharoi Dam in Mehsana district by the seaplane, the first-ever flight by such a craft in the country. His return journey would also be by the same seaplane.

#Visuals from #Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to travel from Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad to Dharoi Dam via sea plane, today. After that, he will offer prayers at Ambaji pic.twitter.com/uLXscbmbCS

— ANI (@ANI) December 12, 2017

He will land at the Sabarmati river at 9.30 am, and will then go to the Dharoi dam and offer prayers at the Ambaji temple.

Tomorrow at 9:30 AM I will travel from Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad to Dharoi Dam via sea plane. After that will offer prayers to Maa Amba at Ambaji. With air, roads & rail connectivity, our Government is making efforts for harnessing waterways. All this is for 125 crore Indians!

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 11, 2017

Modi’s plans of using a seaplane in Ahmedabad came a day after the city police denied him permission to hold a mega roadshow in the city. [caption id=“attachment_4254059” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Narendra Modi. PTI[/caption] The police cited congested roads and communally sensitive areas that fall enroute as the reason. The move comes in the backdrop of inputs gathered by central intelligence agencies that a “lone wolf” may try to target roadshows of “big political leaders” during the campaigning for the upcoming elections. According to a report on NDTV, Modi took a dig at the Congress as well, saying the party cannot even “imagine” development work like the sea-plane. “We won’t be able to build airports everywhere so we will focus on waterways,” he said. He added as many as 106 such waterways have been planned in the country. Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani said this is for the first time in the history of the country that a sea-plane will land on a water body and that will be the Sabarmati river. “Modi will travel in the plane to Dharoi. He will visit Ambaji temple and come back from Dharoi to Sabarmati in the same plane,” Rupani said. The Congress also confirmed that it had sought permission for Gandhi’s roadshow and corner meetings. “We will adhere to the decision taken by the administration and the programme stands cancelled,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said. He said Gandhi was not facing any security threat in Gujarat. “As far as Gandhi is concerned, he is not facing any security threat as conceived by the Gujarat Police. The kind of affection he has got in Gujarat is unsurmountable,” he said, adding that since “Modi_ji_ is a big person, the police may be concerned about his security”. With inputs from PTI Click here for detailed coverage on Gujarat Assembly Elections