Lok Sabha elections: Amit Shah to file papers on Saturday

BJP president Amit Shah arrived in Ahmedabad on Friday night to a rousing welcome by his party cadre amid the deafening drums beats, slogan shouting and showering of petals. He will file his candidature for the Gandhinagar

Lok Sabha seat

on Saturday.

Shah will lead a 4-km roadshow that will begin from the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Naranpura and end at Patidar Chowk in Ghatlodia. Before the roadshow, Amit Shah is expected to address party workers at the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Naranpura on Saturday morning.

Accompanied by leaders of the BJP, allied parties and party workers, he will then go to the collector’s office in Gandhinagar, where he will file his nomination at 12.39pm, which is considered to be an auspicious time to start something, called the ‘vijay muharat’.

A few hundred extremely boisterous BJP supporters thronged the airport on Friday evening, waving party flags and shouting slogans. They cheered and jostled when Amit Shah emerged from the terminal. Shah waved briefly to the supporters before leaving.

The party has made elaborate arrangements for the roadshow, which will pass through areas that fall under the Gandhinagar

Lok Sabha

constituency. Specially decorated trucks, banners and several other arrangements are in place. Police have set up elaborate security arrangements to ensure that the roadshow passes off peacefully. Party leaders said that thousands of workers will form a human chain on both sides of the road leading to the district collector’s office in Gandhinagar to welcome Amit Shah.

The Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat is considered not just a bastion of the BJP, but a seat that is usually set aside for the party’s top leadership. BJP stalwarts Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani have contested and won this seat earlier. Advani has represented Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha six times.