New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency since 2014. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won all eight seats in the Varanasi district, just as it had done in 2017 .
Five of these assembly segments fall in Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
The BJP won seven of the district’s seats — Ajagara, Sevapuri, Shivpur, Varanasi Cantt, Varanasi north, Varanasi South, and Pindra — while Rohania was won by its ally Apna Dal (Soneylal).
Winning the district has become a prestige issue for the BJP as it includes Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency. Modi, who was in Varanasi last year to inaugurate the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, spent the last two days of the campaign there and held a roadshow.
The PM’s constituency has witnessed significant development in terms of road infrastructure, the laying of power cables underground, and construction of footpaths. Work on the Kashi Vishwanath corridor was also completed recently.
Anti-incumbency sentiment against the local MLAs had been a cause for concern, but the party made a major effort to recover by relying on roadshows, rallies, and mass outreach programmes by Modi.
The BJP had formed a war room in the Gulab Bagh area of Varanasi to prepare for Modi’s visits, including public rallies and addresses to party workers.
The war room’s task was not only to create a buzz but also to gather relevant information for the remaining constituencies where the last two phases of polling took place on 3 and 7 March. It connected party workers, office bearers, and volunteers.
Allies & fight for Varanasi South seat
While the BJP had won six seats in 2017, the remaining two were won by its alliance partners, Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
This time, the SBSP had entered into an alliance with Samajwadi Party (SP) and, while the Apna Lal (Sonelal) headed by Anupriya Patel remained with the NDA, the Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) led by her mother, Krishna Patel, allied with the SP.
Although both the SP and BJP alliances put great emphasis on all eight constituencies, the South Varanasi seat, which the BJP has won every time since 1989, saw the most intense fight. Shyamdev Roy Chaudhary of the BJP won the seat seven times in consecutive assembly elections, from 1989 to 2012. However, he was replaced by Neelkanth Tiwari in 2017. Tiwari, too, won the seat for the party that year.
This time, Tiwari was the BJP’s candidate once more, and defeated the SP’s Kameshwar Nath Dixit, a priest of the Mrityunjay Mahadev temple, by more than 10,000 votes.
The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, often called Modi’s “dream project”, also falls under the South Varanasi seat. Ahead of the assembly elections, the BJP had highlighted the development of “Kashi and Kashi Vishwanath Corridor” as a model not only in the state but something worth emulating across the country.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
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