Modi descended on the Assi ghat which had been sanitised by security and cleaned up by the Municipal authorities for the function at 8.35 am and headed straight to the river bank to perform Ganga pujan amid chants of ‘Har Har Mahadev” by his supporters. After a 15 minute prayer ritual, Modi picked up a spade and began vigorously digging out silt on the bank and news crews recorded the act. Significantly, he did not stop after a few strokes but carried on to fill basket after basket with silt as a small crowd cheered him on with slogans.

Modi then turned to the assembled media and said “I am nominating nine others to carry on the campiagn.” Apart from Yadav, Modi nominated cricketers Mohammed Kaif, Suresh Raina, comedian Raju Srivastava, Bhojpuri film star and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, singer Kailash Kher, writer Manu Sharma, Padma Shri Devi Parsad Dwivedi and Swami Rambhadracharya. Modi also announced that social groups had assured him that the ghats in Varanasi would be cleaned up in a month. (SDF/KH)