Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to become the first prime minister in 50 years to visit Jammu and Kashmir's Doda as he will visit the district today to address a public rally for the upcoming assembly elections, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday.
In the evening, Minister Singh visited the venue to review preparations for the public meeting on September 14. Singh emphasised that PM Modi's visit will be the first by a Prime Minister to Doda in nearly 50 years. Singh said, "There is a lot of excitement among the public as PM Modi has given priority to remote areas...In the past 10 years, a lot of development has taken place in Doda...No Prime Minister has visited Doda in the past 50 years. But after the visit of PM Modi, a message will go that PM Modi has worked a lot, bringing remote areas on par with developed areas."
Moreover, Singh also spoke about PM Modi's 'Naya Kashmir' vision. Singh said, "There has been significant progress. The number of startups has increased from 30 to around 850-900."
Assured of the BJP's victory, Singh claimed that the party will comfortably win all the seats in the first phase of the polls. Singh grew parallels between the erstwhile government of Congress, NC and the last 11 years. He said, "In the last 11 years, the area has transformed. It now takes just 2-3 hours to reach Jammu, which was previously impossible, thanks to new road networks through the villages."
Notably, the polling in Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled in three phases. The first phase will be on September 18, followed by two phases on September 25, and October 1. The counting of the votes and declaration of results will be on October 8. Jammu and Kashmir has 90 Assembly constituencies, including 7 reserved for SCs and 9 reserved for STs. As per the Election Commission of India, there are 8.806 million electors in the UT, who will be eligible to cast their vote at their respective polling stations on the day of voting
(With ANI Inputs)
