VARANASI, India (AP) — In the Indian city Hindus consider the center of the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges River with the centuries-old Vishwanath temple.

It's a project dripping with equal parts symbolism and political calculation.

Modi in his five years as prime minister has pushed to promote this secular nation of 1.3 billion people as a distinctly Hindu state.

The $115 million promenade is just one of a number of Modi's religious glamour projects, aimed squarely at pleasing his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's base ahead of elections that start on Thursday.

Modi took power in 2014 elections on a pledge to rapidly expand India's economy.

With his economic performance under scrutiny, Modi is playing up political symbolism.