PM Modi’s Parivartan rally in Lucknow today, says crowd shows who will win UP

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday campaigned for his party in Lucknow’s Ramabai Ambedkar Ground where a large numbers of people collected in rally. Prime Minister Modi said to see the crowd of rally, “Never before have I seen such a huge consultation, not even in my campaign for the 2014 general election”. The PM said to a sea of supporters that roared their approval. "When I was shown photos in the morning of the crowd that had gathered already, there were so many people that I asked if I was running late," he said, declaring that "it is time for the Bhartiya Janta Party ' s 14-year exile to end" in Uttar Pradesh. He also said that collection of people as a crowd shows that who will win in the Uttar Pradesh’s assembly election that is going on 2017. This was the PM Modi ' s first public meeting after his televised address on Saturday night which updated the country on the notes ban that he announced suddenly on 8 November 2016. The dates for Uttar Pradesh ' s election are expected to be announced later this week. The Uttar Pradesh result, which will be read as a portent of whether PM Modi will return for a second term in 2019, will also been seen as a test of his popularity after his risky demonetisation drive, which left India desperately short of cash. In his speech on New Year ' s Eve, he announced a series of schemes to financially benefit those groups that are seen as hit especially hard by the reform and are a key component of Uttar Pradesh ' s population- farmers, small and medium-sized business, and the urban and rural poor. On Monday morning, the SC ruled that religion cannot be used by politicians to seek votes. Uttar Pradesh is communally sensitive and like Bihar, its politics are embedded in a complex caste calculus.