Despite bright sun, PM Modi's physical rally in UP's Bijnor cancelled in the name of bad weather

Lucknow: Citing bad weather, the first election rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh was cancelled on Monday. Though the weather was fine in Bijnor on Monday with bright sunlight, PM Modi addressed the rally virtually while Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior leaders were present at the site. The sate BJP leader said that PM Modi could not arrive due to bad weather.

This was the first physical rally of PM Modi ever since the run for UP polls has begun. PM was to address the rally in west UP district of Bijnor where elections would be held in the first phase. In the first phase of UP assembly elections, 58 seats of eight west UP districts would go for poll on February 10. The campaigning on these seats would end on Tuesday evening.

In west UP, ruling BJP is facing tough challenge from Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance. After the rally was cancelled, RLD Chief Jayant Choudhury tweeted saying that bright sunlight is here in Bijnor but it seems weather is rough for BJP. He also posted a Google report of weather in Bijnor showing bright sun and temperature of 17 degree Celsius.

Local leaders of SP and RLD too posted photographs of the rally site showing good weather conditions but poor turnout of public. The RLD leaders said that neither the public nor the other BJP leaders present at the rally faced any problem due to weather. According to them, leaders for almost all the political parties including BJP have been campaigning in the western UP and facing no problem due to rough weather. PM’s visit was cancelled, as there was not much public at the rally site despite candidates of eight assembly segments of Bijnor were asked to mobilize people.