Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh:
Narendra Modi today reached out to voters in the holy Varanasi town of Uttar Pradesh using the river Ganga to convey his message - "Those who can't manage the Ganga, can't manage the country."
Mr Modi told a crowded rally in Varanasi's Khajuri village, "To see a pure Ganga, we need political cleansing in Delhi and Lucknow."
Before the rally, Mr Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for 2014, offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Sankatmochan temple - the target of blasts in 2006 - in what was seen as a loaded message to his party's traditional voters.
"Uttar Pradesh is not only important for the number game. My thinking is not so narrow. If Uttar Pradesh is not developed, then India will not develop," Mr Modi said in a speech peppered with dramatic one-liners and references to local issues, such as the state of farmers, and the city's struggling Sari industry.
"The 2014 polls will not be fought between two parties...no individual will lead these polls. This election will be fought by the people of India. Every voter will fight," Mr Modi said.
"People ask me - what will you do after coming to power. I tell them, I don't say anything, I do. I haven't come with promises. People are tired of promises. I have come to do."
Uttar Pradesh, with its 80 parliamentary seats, is crucial in deciding which party rules India.
Referring to the recent state polls, in which the Congress lost Rajasthan and Delhi and failed to defeat the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Mr Modi said people want to see a second BJP government come to power. "They are uprooting Congress governments and electing BJP governments," he said.