New Delhi: It has been nothing short of a mega spectacle in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi since Thursday, when the PM held a grand roadshow and followed it up with an equally glitzy nomination filing process Friday attended by top NDA leaders. The pomp and show was interspersed with a ‘Ganga aarti‘ and prayers at the famous Kaal Bhairav temple in the ancient city.
Five years ago, Modi won the Varanasi seat with a massive margin of 3.37 lakh votes, beating Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) head Arvind Kejriwal. It was the first time Modi had ventured into electoral territory outside his home state Gujarat.
This time, with no formidable opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes Modi will be able to better his margin, and perhaps even set a record of sorts.
While the response to Modi’s roadshow and overall presence in Varanasi in the last two days has left the BJP buoyant, ThePrint takes a closer look at how the has PM performed as an MP, and where his constituency stands today.
MPLAD use
Under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), MPs can recommend development projects in their constituencies. For this, MPs get Rs 5 crore a year — essentially, Rs 25 crore across their five year term.
Of this, the PM had spent Rs 16.04 crore till 25 January this year, below both the state average of Rs 17.77 crore and the national average of Rs 17.3 crore, shows ThePrint My543 initiative.
Effectively, the PM spent less MPLADS funds in Varanasi than the average amount spent by an MP in Uttar Pradesh, as well as by an MP nationally.
However, under the scheme, the MP merely identifies projects and sanctions funds, while the implementation lies with the district administration.
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Rural indicators
In terms of rural areas, the Varanasi district seems to be better off than most others in the state, on an average. While a Lok Sabha constituency and district do not overlap exactly, parameters of the latter do give an adequate indication of the constituency’s situation.
The Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, for instance, comprises five assembly segments — all of which fall in the district.
As per data available with the rural development ministry under Mission Antyodaya, Varanasi has a score of 47 out of 100 based on 15 rural parameters.
In that respect, it scores better than the state average of 38. The 15 parameters include health and sanitation, agriculture, rural housing, land improvement, animal husbandry, drinking water, roads, rural electrification, non-conventional energy, poverty alleviation, women and child development, social welfare, public distribution system, vocational education and education. Each of the parameters account for a different score.
Among these, the Varanasi district scores more than or equal to the state average overall. For instance, in rural housing — which has been one of PM Modi’s pet schemes — it scores a 5 on 5. In rural electrification as well, it scores a cent percent. However, both the district and the state score a zero out of 9 in the area of poverty alleviation.
To be sure, the data reflects a continuous performance of the district, and not merely since 2014.
Villages adopted under SAGY
Under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), according to which MPs are to identify and adopt a village in their constituency to turn it into a “model village”, the PM has adopted three — Nagepur, Jayapur and Kakarahiya.
Among these, Jayapur gram panchayat has a national rank of 43, Nagepur 44 and Kakarahiya 54 as per rural development ministry’s data.
The lowest rank is 99, which means all three villages are somewhere around the midway mark. While data has been collected for 2,46,799 gram panchayats, there are several villages which score identically and hence, have the same rank. As many as 229 GPs fall in the 1-10 rank group alone.
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