Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony of numerous developmental projects in Jammu on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Kashmir Valley next week and address a mass gathering ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

This will be Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to the Kashmir Valley since his administration repealed Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and divided the state into two Union Territories in August 2019.

The prime minister last visited the valley in February 2019, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to a report, the prime minister will attend a public rally in Srinagar on March 7 and inaugurate a number of initiatives. The gathering will take place at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre, which overlooks the gorgeous Dal Lake.

“People here have long demanded that the Prime Minister come and address them. Ravinder Raina, the Jammu and Kashmir BJP president, told NDTV that he will now address a rally on March 7.

Other reports from news agency PTI and local daily Greater Kashmir suggested that the rally would take place in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

According to sources, the public gathering in Anantnag would take place between March 7 and 15, as part of the BJP’s electoral campaign for the upcoming general elections.

While the National Conference has three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley, the BJP won two seats in the Jammu region in 2019. The BJP holds the lone seat in Ladakh as well.

The BJP is focusing on the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency, which includes the south Kashmir areas of Shopian, Kulgam, and Anantnag, as well as the Rajouri-Poonch area in Jammu. Before delimitation, the Anantnag seat consisted of only four south Kashmir districts: Shopian, Kulgam, Pulwama, and Anantnag.

Justice Hasnain Masoodi (retd), of the National Conference, won the seat in 2019.

This will be PM Modi’s second visit to Jammu and Kashmir in less than a month. On February 20, the Prime Minister held a public rally in Jammu and announced about ₹32,000 crore in development projects around the country.

The Bhartiya Janata Party has set a target of 370 seats, whereas the NDA aims for 400+. During his speech at the Jammu rally, Prime Minister Modi made the first mention of goal 370.

The prime minister has gone on a whirlwind tour throughout the country ahead of the declaration of Lok Sabha elections next month. His speeches centre on ‘Modi’s Guarantees,’ in which he emphasises how his government’s welfare measures are more than simply promises; they have actually helped recipients.

While the Kashmir visit is intended to coincide with the Lok Sabha elections, it is also significant because the state assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled after the Lok Sabha elections. The former state has been under President’s control since July 2018, when the Bharatiya Janata Party-People’s Democratic Party coalition government failed.

The last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir took place in 2014.