ELECTION SCOOP: PM Modi to begin massive rally drive, minimum 3 per state ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Numbers and dates here

The BJP has decided to shed all complacency and take on its political opponent head-on in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to begin a massive rally schedule starting from March 25, 2019. Top sources have informed Republic TV that BJP will sound the poll bugle across the country by conducting a minimum of 3 rallies in every state. 

As per Sources, the state of Uttar Pradesh will witness more than 20 rallies of the Prime Minister as he will address the people of Western UP before they go for voting in the first phase for upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

Sources have also told Republic TV that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will address more than 150 rallies across the country. 

Read: SCOOP: PM Modi May Contest 2019 Lok Sabha Polls From Varanasi And Vadodara

Earlier in the day, top sources have indicated to Republic TV that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from two seats, Gujarat's Vadodara constituency and Varanasi which is his current seat.

The Prime Minister, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, had also contested from the same two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He had won the Vadodara election by a massive margin over the second-placed Congress candidate, securing almost 8.5 lakh votes versus the 2.75 lakh votes of INC's Madhusudan Mistry. The third-placed candidate - Sunil Digambar Kulkarni of the Aam Aadmi Party - secured just 10 thousand votes. Narendra Modi's winning margin in Vadodara was the second-highest ever in the Lok Sabha polls, behind only Anil Basu of the CPI(M) who won the Arambagh seat in West Bengal by about 5.9 lakh votes in 2004.

In Varanasi, Narendra Modi had gone up against Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, securing 5.8 lakh votes versus Kejriwal's 2.1 lakh votes. The Congress candidate for Varanasi had only managed 75 thousand votes, while the BSP candidate got 60 thousand votes and the SP candidate got 45 thousand votes. 

Read: Vote For India: Here's The How, Where And When To Vote, For Each State And Every Constituency, As The Countdown For Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Begins

India is all set to celebrate the biggest festival of democracy in the world, following the Election Commission's big Sunday announcement wherein the schedule for the elections to the 17th Lok Sabha was revealed.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora informed that the general elections will be held in seven phases, and detailed precisely why the elections are the largest exercise of democratic franchise anywhere in the world. Here are the dates, numbers, facts and figures that matter:

• The elections will start on April 11 and continue till May 19
• The all-important vote counting will be held on May 23
• An astonishing 900 million voters will be eligible to vote for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country, an electorate that supercedes that of 2014 by a massive 84.5 million
• About 15 million members of the electorate are aged 18 and 19 
• The Model Code of Conduct came into effect from the very same day i.e. March 10, 2019