Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar in mid-March, his second visit to the Union Territory in over two weeks, officials said.

He last visited the Kashmir Valley in February 2019. While officials in Kashmir are tight-lipped, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said that the PM was most likely to visit the valley by mid-March.

“PM’s visit to Kashmir is scheduled. But the date is not yet final. Tentatively, he will be here around March 15,” said BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur.

While the Prime Minister will attend some official functions in Srinagar, including a likely security review meeting, the J&K BJP leaders are ecstatic for a planned mega rally ahead of the upcoming Loks Sabha elections.

“There is a public rally of the PM scheduled and by that time, the elections would have been announced. So it would be a political rally,” said another BJP leader.

Another senior Kashmir BJP leader said that the PM’s visit was due as he has not visited the Valley in five years. “We take it as the kick start of our Kashmir election campaign,” he said.

“There has already been an announcement of assembly elections as well by the lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha and hence, the PM’s visit is important,” he said, while pointing to a statement of Sinha in Jammu on Wednesday. The L-G had said that assembly elections in J&K would be held before September.

While three Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir are a stronghold of J&K’s main regional party National Conference, the BJP is eyeing the south Kashmir’s Anantnag seat as Rajouri-Poonch areas of Jammu were merged into it during the delimitation process.

Modi had visited Kashmir on February 3, 2019, to inaugurate and lay foundation stones for various development projects related to healthcare, higher education, skill development and employment.

The public rally is most likely to be organised at the convention centre along the Dal Lake, they said.

The public address of the Prime Minister may be streamed live at various locations in the valley, especially in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, the officials said.

The visit is part of his outreach programme ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He visited the Union territory’s winter capital Jammu on February 20.

In Jammu, Modi launched development projects worth over ₹32,000 crore before addressing a public rally at the Maulana Azad Stadium.

With PTI inputs