‘Modi, Modi, Modi’, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ reverberated as the Prime Minister’s convoy passed through the brightly-lit Pondy Bazaar, Chennai’s busy commercial area, on Tuesday evening, ahead of the April 19 Lok Sabha polls (first phase) in the state.

With just ten days left for Phase 1 of the LS polls, political parties are going all out to woo voters with more aggressive campaigns. As PM Modi’s push to make his party’s presence felt in this election in Tamil Nadu continues, he held a roadshow on Tuesday evening in the state capital.

In a show of strength, the party organised a 2 km road show in the heart of the city. Shops closed for security, but people — some wearing Modi T-shirts and some mufflers — lined up on either side to have a glimpse of the Prime Minister waving from the open-top vehicle. Clad in a white shirt and the traditional ‘veshti’ (dhoti) and ‘angavastram’ (shawl), the Prime Minister, with State BJP President K Annamalai to his left, stood atop an orange coloured, decorated car and waved to his supporters. He also carried a small cut-out of the BJP’s symbol, the lotus. The roadshow from Panagal Park to Teynampet took nearly 45 minutes.

Modi was campaigning for the party’s three candidates: Vinoj P Selvam (Chennai Central), Tamilisai Soundararajan (Chennai South), and RC Paul Kanakaraj (Chennai North). All three candidates were standing with Modi.

A massive police force along with the Home Guards provided multi-layer security since afternoon.

Sandeep, a trader from Sowcarpet in North Chennai, along with four of his family members, waited for nearly five hours to have a glimpse of their favourite leader. “We attended Modi’s rally at Chennai YMCA recently but could not see him closely. Today, we got a chance to see him at a close range (of 10 metres).

Kamakshi, a resident of T Nagar, became emotional on seeing Modi, who with a lotus in his hand, waved towards her. “It was a dream come true,” she said.

This is Modi’s seventh visit to the state this year; on April 9 he toured south Chennai and on April 10, 12 and 13, he will tour five constituencies -- Vellore, Perambalur, Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Virudhunagar.

After an overnight stay in the city, Modi will head to Vellore, where he will seek votes for AC Shanmugam, an educationist and founder of Puthiya Needhi Katchi, who is contesting the elections on BJP’s lotus symbol. He will also visit Nilgiris, where BJP is fielding a Dalit candidate, L Murugan, a Rajya Sabha member, and the Union Minister for Fisheries. Murugan faces a challenge from DMK’s A Raja, former Union telecom minister, and AIADMK’s Lokesh Tamil Selvan, son of Dhanapal, a former speaker of the Tamil Nadu assembly.

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