Launching his roadshow in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Saturday said the “countdown” to Modi’s defeat has begun.
On Friday, the district administration granted permission to Chandrashekhar Azad, the founder of the Dalit outfit, for the road show from 11 am to 4 pm.
The seven-km motorcycle rally was scheduled to begin from Ambedkar Park and end at Ravidas Park.
The young Azad, who is fighting as an independent candidate, has thousands of followers, including 32.7 thousand on Twitter. He joined Twitter on February 2018.
“I will be fighting as an independent candidate from the seat as I do not want somebody, who is weakening the country, to win from Uttar Pradesh,” he is quoted as saying. He has vowed to defeat PM Modi in Varanasi.
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In an interview to Outlook earlier this month, when asked what was behind his decision to take on PM Modi in Varanasi, he said: “Modi is anti-Dalit, his government’s policies have ruined the country. I’ll make sure he’s not re-elected to the Lok Sabha. I have requested the SP-BSP-RLD grand alliance to support me in Varanasi to defeat the PM and send him back to Gujarat. We’ve taken a pledge to defeat the BJP.”
(Read the full interview here)
He has said that Prime Minister Modi is the “person under whom Bahujans have been persecuted” in the country.
He grabbed political limelight ever since he and the Bhim Army protested against the upper caste Thakurs in Shabbirpur village of Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh on Maharana Pratap Jayanti, in 2017.
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Earlier this month, Congress General Secretary in charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi visited him at a Meerut hospital where he was admitted after being detained by the police for allegedly violating the model code of conduct.
