It was a charged-up Monday morning for Ahmedabad ahead of a mega Modi-Trump showdown here. Public in large numbers thronged to the enhanced Motera cricket stadium, where the US President Donald Trump along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address an unprecedented gathering of over 1.2 lakh people.

The entrance to the World's largest cricket stadium saw heavy flow of visitors, which included students, villagers, businessmen and citizens from different parts of the State.

There are over 2,200 State transport buses specially hired to ferry people from parts of State. "We started from our village early morning and reached here to see the Namaste Trump event. It is exciting to see America's President on our soil," said Haribhai Thakor from Mehsana district - about 40 kms from Ahmedabad.

Men, women and students were donning white caps with Namaste Trump logo and tricolour printed on it. While some chanted "Bharat Mata Ki Jay" (India is Great), some others wore face masks of Donald Trump giving the Stadium a true colour of Indo-US confluence.

The Stadium, which has 1.1 lakh capacity, started filling up since nine in the morning as huge crowd poured in at the entrance of the Stadium till noon. Cultural programmes with Gujarati folk singers and Bollywood artists performing to keep the crowed entertained till the two leaders arrive. Heavy security deployment prompted people to walk a few kilometers as the vehicle entry to the Stadium gates was restricted for the VVIP movement.

Inside view

Inside the stadium, artists engaged the crowd. The pride of Gujarat was reflected in the songs by famous Kinjal Dave, who drew parallels between Gandhi and Modi as well as Ambani and Adani while narrating Gujarati Pride in a musical way. The audience bloomed on the AR Rahman's Maa Tujhe Salaam song, while Uri's popular slogan - How's the Josh (how's the excitement) further fuelled the fire in the jam-packed stadium.

President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and family arrived on schedule at Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave them a red-carpet welcome. The visiting foreign head of the government was given a guard of honour by the three wings of the Indian armed forces at the airport before they embarked upon the roadshow to Sabarmati Ashram.

Guajrat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and Guvernor Acharya Devvrat along with State ministers, Mayors of Ahmedabad and GAndhinagar cities and the office bearers of the Donald Trump Nagrik Abhiwadan Samiti - the organiser of the mega show at the STadium remained present.

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