PM Narendra Modi to begin his campaign in Northeast today, to hold rallies in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh

Update at 12:05 AM: Highlights from the Prime Minister's speech at Aalo below:

 

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PM Narendra Modi will begin his campaign rally in the Northeast on Saturday for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

He will start his campaign from Arunachal Pradesh and end it in Assam. He will address a public meeting in Arunachal Pradesh at ITBP Ground, Aalo in West Siang district. 

In Assam, he will address a gathering in Moran of Dibrugarh and then he will move to Ghaigaon in Gohpur.

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PM Modi's tentative schedule 

Arrival at Aalo Arunachal Pradesh Helipad- 10am 

Rally at Aalo- 10.10am 

Departure from Aalo- 11.55am 

Arrival at Moran Assam Helipad- 12.40pm 

Rally at Moran- 12.50pm 

Departure from Moran- 1.40pm

Arrival at Gohpur Assam Helipad- 2.20pm

Gohpur Rally- 2.50pm

Departure from Gohpur to Jorhat- 3.45pm

Arrival at Jorhat Airport- 4.10pm 

Departure from Jorhat to Delhi- 4.20pm
 

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The BJP has set a target of 25 seats in the Northeast and is looking to win maximum seats in the region in order to make up for any seats they lose in other states.

In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had bagged seven out of the 14 seats in Assam and won the solo seat in Arunachal Pradesh.

On 12 February 2019, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav had announced that BJP had allied with Asom Gana Parishad and were set to jointly contest in Assam in the upcoming parliament elections along with the Bodoland People's Front forming the third cornerstone of the alliance, as reported by ANI.

"The BJP, NPP, NDPP, AGP and BPF will fight together in Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with the mission of defeating Congress party at the hustings. In Tripura, the BJP will fight the elections together with IPFT, our alliance partner. In Sikkim, our alliance will be with SKM, the main Opposition party," Ram Madhav wrote in a Facebook post. 

This alliance came as a relief for the NDA because AGP had earlier snapped ties with BJP in January after differences over Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

This announcement was made hours after the Centre cleared the redrafted bill on 7 January 2019, that seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 by granting Indian citizenship to Hinds, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before 31 December 2014.

READ: BJP chief Amit Shah to campaign for Assam ally AGP in Kaliabor on Thursday