Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, 24 September 2026, interacted via video conferencing with participants of the Seva Sankalp Yatra — a bike rally travelling between Vadnagar and Varanasi — stressing that those in public life must treat service as their foremost obligation, not a political tool.

What the Seva Sankalp Yatra Involves

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-organised yatra is running in 10 groups, with participants traversing 159 villages across both directions — from Vadnagar to Varanasi and from Varanasi to Vadnagar. The yatra is scheduled to conclude on 7 October. At each stop, teams are undertaking 25 different activities, including Jan Sabhas, tree plantation drives, cleanliness programmes, interactions with social media influencers, and community outreach with beneficiaries of government schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Participants also spoke about encouraging communities to register on the NaMo App and described receiving expressions of gratitude from scheme beneficiaries along the route.

What PM Modi Said

Addressing the Seva Yatris, Modi urged them to let their actions speak rather than their words. 'I would say the same to all my colleagues: please take care of yourselves as well. Service should be our primary duty, and while serving, we should convey the message of service. We should not preach about service; we should convey its message through our actions,' he said.

He added: 'Through our own conduct, people should see that no matter how powerful we become in politics, or how high a position we attain, our path will always remain the path of service.'

Modi also invoked an old saying about the spiritual merit of pilgrimage, saying: 'When someone returns from a journey, and you offer them your salutations, half the spiritual merit earned from that journey is transferred to the person who pays their respects. So today, by bowing to all these Seva Yatris, I, too, am stealing half of that merit.'

Vadnagar and Varanasi: A Personal Connect

Modi described the two cities as deeply personal landmarks. He identified Vadnagar — blessed, he said, by Hatkeshwar Mahadev — as his birthplace, and Varanasi, home to Baba Vishwanath, as his 'karmabhoomi', or the land where he has dedicated his life to public service. Drawing on his own history as a BJP worker, he recalled organising and participating in similar yatras and acknowledged the physical hardships such journeys involve, including weather and frequent location changes.

Nation-Building Beyond Electoral Politics

Modi drew a deliberate distinction between electoral politics and the broader goal of national development. 'Politics is at one place, elections are at one place, but we are here for Rashtra Nirman,' he said. He linked the spirit of service to flagship welfare initiatives, citing the Ayushman Bharat scheme, and to Gujarat-specific programmes such as the Jyotigram Yojana and the Sujalam Sufalam Yojana, describing them as products of a governance ethos rooted in the principle of 'Nagrik Devo Bhava' — citizens as God.

He also stressed the centrality of youth in India's development arc, framing young Indians as both the architects and the beneficiaries of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Other Voices at the Interaction

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma were also present at the interaction. Yatra participant Hemang welcomed the Seva Yatris on behalf of the group, noting that those travelling towards Varanasi would perform 'Jalabhishek' at the city, while those coming from Kashi would perform the ritual at Vadnagar. He described the yatra as carrying forward a lesson from Modi's 25 years in public life — that commitment to service must outlast any position held.

The yatra's full route and final ceremony are expected to be completed by 7 October, at which point both groups will have performed the ritual acts at their respective destinations.