In 2014, BJP’s PM pick Narendra Modi was trying his luck for the first time from Varanasi
Since 2014 LS polls, Varanasi has been the focal point, be it for politicians or the media. All the more when polls enters final leg. In 2014, BJP’s PM pick Narendra Modi was trying his luck for the first time from Varanasi. Challenging him was Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Congress Ajay Rai. Along with Varanasi, Modi was contesting from Vadodara also.
While Modi won by a huge margin of 5.7 lakh votes from Vadodara, he won by a margin of 3.37 lakh from Varanasi. PM Modi, however, retained Varanasi. Of the 14 Prime Ministers so far, UP has given nine, including Pt Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, AB Vajpayee and last but not the least, Narendra Modi.
Cut to 2017 UP Assembly elections, Varanasi was again in focus. PM Modi spent last three days of the last phase polls there, holding roadshows and rallies. BJP strategists claim the last three days’ push by the PM resulted in BJP getting 35 seats of the 40 seats that went to polls in the last phase of the assembly election.
Back to 2019, the focus is back on Varanasi with only phase-7 of election left. However, this time, the focus is also on West Bengal, which unfortunately has the dubious distinction this time of being the only state to witness violence in all the previous six phases.
While Bengal is in focus for negative reasons, also in focus this time is Gorakhpur. Up at stake is Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s prestige more than that of Ravi Kishan, BJP candidate. More so as bypoll results against BJP at Gorakhpur, Phoolpur and Kairana became the pilot model for SP, BSP and RLD to finally seal a deal for the alliance in the state.
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