Lucknow, Feb 14 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sambhal on February 19 could prove to be a game changer for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The Prime Minister will be visiting the district after 15 years. 'He had last visited Sambhal in 2004 and 2009 as Gujarat chief minister,' said BJP Sambhal district president Harendra Chaudhary.

He said that the party had planned a 'magnificent' welcome for the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of Hindu shrine Kalki Dham.

Kalki Dham, situated in Anchora Kamboh locality of Sambhal, is named after Kalki -- believed to be the 10th and final incarnation of Vishnu who would appear to end the 'Kalyug'.

Thousands of seers from across the country are expected to attend the event.

The Dham is headed by its Peethadheeshwar Acharya Pramod Krishnam, who was expelled from the Congress last week, days after he met PM Modi and invited him to lay the foundation stone of the shrine.

Krishnam, who contested from Sambhal on a Congress ticket in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, may join the saffron camp soon.

This, incidentally, will be PM Modi's first visit to the west UP district as Prime Minister -- similar to his visit to Ayodhya in August 2020 to lay the foundation stone of Ram temple -- and it comes after the 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony for the Ram temple last month.

His visit to Sambhal, which has a sizeable population of Muslims, is significant in BJP's bid for a robust performance in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

This time, BJP plans to wrest back seats it had lost to the opposition in the 2019 polls in this region. BJP had lost all the five seats of Moradabad, Bijnor, Rampur, Amroha and Sambhal to the SP-BSP alliance in 2019.

Sambhal is currently represented by Samajwadi Party MP Shafiq-ur-Rahman Barq -- a four-term former MLA and a five-term MP.

/IANS