PM Modi makes final push in Varanasi

Tribune News Service

Vibha Sharma

Lucknow, March 4

Sporting a saffron cap and a gamcha (cloth associated with the working class of the Purvanchal region), Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a road show in Varanasi amid the chants of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Har Har Mahadev” from supporters, covering three of the eight Assembly segments — Cantonment, Varanasi North and Varanasi South — in his Lok Sabha constituency.

PM Modi will wind up his intensive campaign for the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections with a rally in Varanasi (rural) tomorrow.

• PM Modi has said the entire world is passing through a delicate period and asserted that no matter how grave the crisis is, India’s response is going to be bigger and stronger
• Addressing a rally in Mirzapur on Friday, Modi said thousands of students had been brought back from Ukraine and those still stranded there were being evacuated
• “The world is passing through a delicate period. But you must have seen, irrespective of the grave crisis, attempts (to address it) are even bigger,” the PM said.

In all, 54 Assembly seats across nine districts — Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra — will poll in the seventh and final phase on March 7, for which campaigning will end tomorrow.

Among these, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Azamgarh divisions are witnessing a fierce contest between the ruling BJP and main rival Samajwadi Party (SP). Aiming beyond strongholds such as Azamgarh and Mau, SP supporters claim that this time, the party will also wrest seats in Varanasi district, a claim dismissed by BJP supporters.

Observers say a lot depends on the performance of allies of the NDA and the SP in the seventh phase.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, of the eight Assembly seats in Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP won six and its two partners at that time, Anupriya Patel-led Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Om Prakash-led Rajbhar’s SBSP (which was also with the BJP then), one each.

For the NDA to do well in the eight Assembly seats of Varanasi, the onus is also on Union Minister Anupriya Patel and the Nishad Party, another ally.

For the Akhilesh Yadav-led coalition, the seventh phase will test the capability of the Apna Dal (Kamerwadi) led by Anupriya’s mother Krishna Patel.

Both Apna Dals are competing for votes of the Patel community, or kurmis as they are called, who, along with OBC Rajbhars and Nishads, will decide the outcome of the Assembly seats in Varanasi. In Rohania, for example, the two Apna Dals are in a direct fight.

While Anupriya claims to have proven her strength “multiple times”, her sister Pallavi Patel (who is with the party led by their mother) says “people have made up their mind to dislodge Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath”.

Om Prakash Rajbhar, who has joined hands with Akhilesh Yadav, believes that Varanasi will see a result of “6-2 in favour of the SP-led formation”. BJP leaders, however, say it will be 8-0 in favour of the NDA.

Top Opposition leaders, including Congress’Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, BSP’s Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav-led coalition have marked their attendance in Varanasi.

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