Kurukshetra, Sep 14 (IANS): Sounding the poll bugle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a rally from Haryana’s Kurukshetra on Saturday by launching the BJP’s campaign with an aim to retain the helm in the state for the third straight term ahead of the Assembly elections on October 5.

PM Modi will seek votes for 23 candidates, who will be present at the public meeting, which the party believes is a platform to showcase strength and unity, at Theme Park at 2 p.m.

The 23 Assembly seats fall in districts on the GT Road belt, comprising Panchkula, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Panipat districts and parts of Yamunanagar, Sonipat and Kaithal.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, Congress wrested 14 seats from BJP, mostly falling along the GT Road belt, considered the stronghold of BJP.

Besides Modi, the party has lined up its top leadership comprising Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and party President Jagat Prakash Nadda for campaigning in the coming days.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is contesting from Ladwa in Kurukshetra district, has been touring across the state to ensure return to power.

A total of 2,500 police personnel, including eight Superintendents of Police, have been deployed for the security of the Prime Minister.

In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP, which won 40 seats, well below the 75-plus target, and was six short of a majority in the 90-member Assembly, announced an alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala, great-grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.

The rival Congress won 31 seats, while the less-than-year-old JJP, which broke away from the state's once major regional Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) owing to family disputes, won 10 seats.

Seven Independents and one each of the INLD and the Haryana Lokhit Party had also won.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, BJP had won 47 seats and formed the government in the state for the first time.