Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Sonia Gandhi's turf Rae Bareli today

The prime minister's visit to Rae Bareli is being seen as a strategy of the BJP to pin the Congress leadership in their respective constituencies in the 2019 general election.

Rae Bareli is represented in the Lok Sabha by former Congress chief and UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi who has not visited the constituency since April/ PTI Image/ File

Lucknow:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday arrived in Rae Bareli which is the traditional seat of the Gandhi family. The Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party media co-incharge Navin Srivastava said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Rae Bareli." During his visit, Modi will also visit Allahabad to review preparations for the Kumbh Mela to be held in the city next year. He will hold a public meeting and flag off the Humsafar Express on Sunday. According to district officials, the prime minister will lay the foundation stone and inaugurate projects worth Rs 1,100 crore during the visit. The prime minister's visit to Rae Bareli is being seen as a strategy of the BJP to pin the Congress leadership in their respective constituencies in the 2019 general election. Rae Bareli is represented in the Lok Sabha by former Congress chief and UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi who has not visited the constituency since April. Before that, Sonia Gandhi had visited the constituency in mid-2016. Also, she did not campaign in the constituency during the 2017 UP election, after she developed a health issue during a roadshow in Varanasi. Modi's visit was planned before the counting of votes polled in the five states was taken up on December 11, following which the Congress party threw out BJP governments in three states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The Congress has accused the Modi government of derailing the development of Rae Bareli. Union Finance minister and Rajya Sabha member Arun Jaitley had recently spent his Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) funds on developmental works in the constituency. Modi is likely to visit Uttar Pradesh again on December 29 to issue a commemorative postal stamp on backward caste Maharaja Suheldev Rajbhar and lay the foundation stone of infrastructure projects in Ghazipur.