The ongoing assembly election in Uttar Pradesh is a three-way battle between the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance, the BJP and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The last of the seven phases will take place in forty constituencies across 7 districts on 8th March including PM Varanasi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, 5th March said in Varanasi rally that he chose Varanasi over Vadodara because he wanted to restore the ancient temple town to its former glory.
The Prime Minister began his speech in the rally, with a chant of “Har Har Mahadev”, an incantation to Lord Shiva. This is the traditional form of greeting for residents of this holy city. After that, he started his speech in Bhojpuri language for few lines. Congress was demanding to register FIR against Modi for today’s roadshow in Varanasi. Modi also recalled how permission was denied for his rally in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections when he was the prime ministerial nominee. Prime Minister Modi said being a “small worker of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)” apart from the local MP, he had the right to interact with people of his constituency.
He said “I am a small BJP worker besides being the Prime Minister. The election officials and the district administrator in the city deprived me of an opportunity to hold a rally during the Lok Sabha polls of 2014, Senior BJP leader Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley sat on a dharna in protest. And at the last moment permission was granted for the rally. I am pained by the memory of that situation”.
Referring to the importance of Kashi (Varanasi), Prime Minister Modi said that during his tour of the United States, he visited Boston and he was told that they had a street which they called Kashi, and the people of that street commonly referred to those in the teaching profession as Guru.”
Varanasi will be the most watched constituency that will vote on 8th March 2017. Key persons from Bhartiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party-Congress, and BSP will be battling it out for hot seat in UP. The Prime Minister ensured them in the crowd that if they give him a majority government, he will give them accountability. BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav along with Congress VP Mr.Rahul Gandhi are also holding their rallies in the holy city.
However few people and analysts are predicting that BJP has the best chance of winning UP election after analyzing the speech and reaction of people in Varanasi. The election is a big test for Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is banking on his of ‘work speaks’, and his alliance partner Congress. The election is also seen as the first big challenge for PM Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after the demonetization drive. The party had won a whopping 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections. For the BSP party, it is a make or breaks poll as they failed to win even a single Lok Sabha seat.
