Narendra Modi visits Varanasi, offers prayers at Kashi Vishwanath temple

VARANASI: A day after clinching the city, Narendra Modi today visited Varanasi and offered prayers at famous Kashi Vishwanath temple.

After visiting the temple, the Prime Minister elect went to famed Dashashwamedh Ghat and took part in ' Ganga Aarti' for about half-an-hour amid chanting of 'shlokas' and blowing of coonch shells.

Modi was accompanied by BJP president Rajnath Singh, his close aide Amit Shah and party UP chief Lakshmikant Bajpai.

His coming to the holy city is seen as a gesture of gratitude towards people here who have elected him by a huge margin of over 3 lakh votes.

The Gujarat chief minister thanked people here for playing a major role in the formation of BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

A huge electronic lotus (artificial lotus) was floated in the middle of the Ganga river.

Local police along with Gujarat police, local intelligence unit sleuths and central forces were deployed in the entire area on the banks of the Ganga river at Rajendra Prasad ghat.

Passes were mostly issued to BJP leaders and workers and common people were restricted to the ghat where Modi visited.

Even people at the adjacent Meer ghat and Shitla ghat were restricted to pass through the Rajendra Prasad ghat.

Many newly elected BJP MP's of Poorvanchal region were present at the ghat to welcome Modi here .

Ganga Arti at Dashashwamedh Ghat attracts huge crowds on a daily basis and it had witnessed a bomb explosion in 2010 which had killed two persons and left several others injured.