Prime Minister Narendra Modi filed his nomination from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat at the district collectorate on Tuesday, May 14. He was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The four proposers of his nomination were Pandit Gyaneshwar Shastri, who was part of the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple, Baijnath Patel, Lalchand Kushwaha, and Sanjay Sonkar.
Ahead of filing his nomination, PM Modi said about his relationship with his constituency, "My relationship with my Kashi [aka Varanasi] is amazing, inseparable, and incomparable. All I can say is that it cannot be expressed in words."
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister did 'Ganga Pujan' at Dashashwamedh Ghat and then boarded the cruise ship to NaMo Ghat. He visited the Kaal Bhairav temple and then went to file his nomination papers.
On Monday, PM Modi also held a roadshow in Varanasi. He was accompanied by CM Adityanath and BJP state president Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh. He had held a similar roadshow in Varanasi the day before filing his nomination papers in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Besides, several Union ministers, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and presidents of various NDA member parties were present for the occasion. Those present included Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, MP Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Vishnu Deo Sai and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, his Goa counterpart Pramod Sawant, Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, and his Tripura counterpart Manik Saha were also there.
Leaders of NDA constituents RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, Apna Dal (S) president Anupriya Patel and SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar and other leaders were also present on the occasion.
PM Modi briefly interacted with the guests after filing his nomination papers. Later, he went to the Rudraksh Convention Centre where he interacted with local party workers.
Varanasi will go to polls in the final phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for June 1.