A huge turnout at the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday amid protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, has provided a boost to the ruling party.

More than one lakh BJP supporters from different parts of the state converged at Changsari on the city outskirts for the rally with many of them dressed in colourful ethnic attire.

Chants of “akou ebaar Modi sarkar” (once again Modi government) stood out against the effigies of Modi being burnt by the AASU across the state.

Hundreds of vehicles were pressed into service to ferry the people to the venue and this threw traffic out of gear on National Highway 31 for hours.

Cabinet minister and Neda convener Himanta Biswa Sarma and chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal worked on the massive and charged turnout with their fiery speeches, turning it into a poll rally before Modi took over.

Sarma, while listing out the developments carried out by the Modi government, goaded the crowd to chant “akou ebaar Modi sarkar” to send a clear message to those opposing the government. The crowd responded enthusiastically.

“Those criticising the Prime Minister should come to Changsari to see how much the people of Assam love him,” said Sarma.

“In the many decades of my political life, I have never seen such massive outpouring of affection. And this is the least Assam can do to express our gratitude to our beloved Prime Minister who has given so much to us,” he added.

At the function, the Modi laid the foundation stones of North East Gas Grid, Bio Refinery of Numaligarh Refinery Limited, a 729km gas pipeline from Barauni to Guwahati, city gas distribution networks in Kamrup, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts and a six-lane bridge over the Brahmaputra in Guwahati, besides inaugurating Hollong Modular Gas Processing Plant in Tinsukia and LPG Capacity Augmentation of Mounted Storage Vessel here.