Battleground Varanasi: Will Baba Vishwanath Bless The BJP?  

Across several groups of people who had attended Narendra Modi바카라�s roadshow in Varanasi on Friday, March 4, or heard him on TVs and radios, the discussion centred around the adjective widely attributed to the prime minister by local BJP candidates: 바카라�saviour바카라�. Interestingly, a common thread was emerging from all these discussions in this VIP constituency. Most people said they felt had it been 2017, 바카라�the boats of the BJP candidates would have crossed the Ganga without any trouble. But in 2022, the journey for the eight MLA candidates from PM Modi바카라�s parliamentary constituency could well be a stormy one바카라�.  

In December 2021, the PM had inaugurated the Rs 700 crore Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in the heart of Varanasi. But in Varanasi South, where the shrine of Baba Vishwanath is located, Samajwadi Party candidate Kishan Dikshit is giving a tough fight to the incumbent BJP MLA, Neelkanth Tiwari, who is a junior minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. The constituency has been a strong citadel for BJP, from where Shyamdev Rai Choudhary represented the party between 1989 and 2017.  

A greenhorn in electoral politics, Dikshit is a priest of the famous Mrityunjay Mahadev Temple. He is said to be a non-controversial and well-educated person. A former student leader, Dikshit led the agitation against the demolition of houses within 200m of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. He also protested the setting up of bio-toilets or floating toilets on the Ganga, and led a movement for saving 바카라�heritage temples바카라�. The young leader is said to have personal connections with thousands of his temple devotees.    

Samajwadi spokesperson Manoj Rai tells Outlook, 바카라�Since BJP has been playing the religion card everywhere, we decided to field the district president of our party바카라�s youth wing from Varanasi South. Kishan Dikshit comes from a family of well-respected mahants of one of the oldest and most prominent temples in Varanasi. Every Hindu has faith in Mrityunjay Mahadev. It will certainly benefit our candidate politically.바카라� He says he isn바카라�t aware if Dikshit is the only priestly candidate of the party in the 2022 election.   

바카라�No doubt he enjoys the support of local residents who feel the development of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor has been executed in a wrong way,바카라� says Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, who is head of the department of Electronics Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University. 바카라�While he has his own support base, there바카라�s a possibility that SP바카라�s voter base, as well as candidates of the Congress, BSP and AAP, could deepen the dent in the BJP candidate바카라�s vote share, strengthening Dikshit바카라�s position.바카라�   

While the constituency has a considerable number of Brahmin, Vaishya and Muslim voters, Dikshit is contesting the election on issues such as the development of the Vishwanath shrine in sync with the heritage infrastructure of the city, free entrance passes for pilgrims, opening of lanes that lead to Ganga ghats, arrangement of bike ambulances for residents living in labyrinthine lanes, reopening of Sanskrit schools that have been closed, vehicle parking concessions for local traders, and rehabilitation of small traders who got displaced at the time of the corridor redevelopment.   

Before embarking on his electoral campaign for the parliamentary seat in 2014, Modi had visited the temple and called on Mishra, who is also chief Mahant of the famous Sankat Mochan temple, on December 20, 2013.   

Mishra says Brahmins are unhappy over the way non-Banarasi religious scholars are being imposed on Banaras. 바카라�They come here like Siberian migratory birds and fly away. They just endorse government actions aimed at reshaping the city as 바카라�a Smart City바카라�, and know nothing about its heritage,바카라� Mishra says, questioning the silence over the efficacy of the Namami Gange project.  

Incidentally, in the wake of the PM바카라�s roadshow, several awnings had been erected on both sides of Asi Nadi, which becomes the Asi Nullah as it nears Assi Ghat, where it empties the city바카라�s sewage into the Ganga. The condition of Varuna, another tributary of Ganga on the opposite bank, is no different. The name Varanasi has been derived from the confluence of both the names of the tributaries, Varuna and Asi, according to Mishra.   

Observers viewed the March 3 visit of West Bengal CM and TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee to Varanasi as a 바카라�journey of revenge바카라�. Pertinently, Yogi Adityanath had campaigned against her in the 2021 Bengal assembly elections.   

But Amitabh Bhattacharya, a veteran, Varanasi-based journalist, termed Banerjee바카라�s visit as symbolic. 바카라�It will have little impact on electoral politics. The maximum concentration of Bengalis is in the Varanasi Cantt constituency바카라�which is home to about 10,000 Bengal-origin families. Interestingly, the mother of BJP바카라�s Varanasi Cantt contestant, Saurabh Srivastava, is a Bengali. She is a Bengali Ghoshal Brahmin.바카라�  

바카라�Mamata made a political statement that Akhilesh Yadav is not alone in this election,바카라� the septuagenarian scribe adds. 바카라�She is struggling to come out of provincial limits. Mamata aspires to make a mark in national politics and needs the support of regional leaders.바카라�  

In the Varanasi Cantt constituency, where PM Modi made a stopover at Pappu tea shop for over half an hour on March 4 during his roadshow, the Congress바카라� Rajesh Mishra is giving tough competition to the incumbent BJP MLA, Saurabh Srivastava.     

The roadshow started from Maldahiya, where PM Modi garlanded the statue of late Congress leader and the first Union home minister, Sardar Patel. It culminated at BHU, where he paid tributes to Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, a four-time president of the Indian National Congress.  

바카라�If the party candidates and the state party바카라�s unit were so self-assured, there wouldn바카라�t have been the entire 바카라�Team Modi바카라� in Varanasi for this election,바카라� says Ratnakar Tripathi, a noted social activist and local, claiming, 바카라�the BJP is facing a tough time in all eight assembly seats.바카라�  

Currently, scores of top BJP leaders, including Union home minister Amit Shah, party president J.P. Nadda, Union minister and UP BJP in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister Anurag Thakur, besides CM Yogi Adityanath, are stationed in the temple city. Varanasi will vote in the seventh and final round of the state assembly polls on March 7.  

According to local residents, Union home minister Amit Shah has been holding group meetings with members of the Gujarati community in several pockets of Varanasi. A sizeable part of the community is into the trade of Banarasi silk saris.  

In the run-up to the elections, several BJP workers from Gujarat have also been campaigning for the party in Banaras. Even at the ghats, they can be seen greeting pilgrims with the chants of 바카라�Jai Sri Ram바카라�, while waving BJP flags and cut-outs of Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath.  

Even though former CM and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also held a big roadshow in the city on March 4, its advertisements and coverage was largely missing from the mainstream media.  

바카라�The eight assembly seats are important for the BJP as these seats belong to the Prime Minister바카라�s parliamentary constituency. The loss of even a single seat here could have long-term political consequences for the party,바카라� Tripathi says, explaining that 바카라�the public euphoria in yesterday바카라�s roadshow was nothing compared to what it was in 2014 and 2017바카라�.  

Describing the road show as 바카라�stage-managed바카라�, Tripathi concluded, 바카라�Even though the central and state governments claim to have spent thousands of crores on Varanasi, the issues of common masses remain unaddressed. And this is the biggest source of resentment against the incumbent state government.바카라�