As the campaigning for the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh polls came to a close on Tuesday, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are congregating in Varanasi—Prime Minister Modi's Lok Sabha constituency—which is set to go to polls on March 7.
There are eight Assembly seats in the Varanasi district, with the BJP claiming all eight seats in the previous elections. The saffron party had won six seats, with its allies Apna Dal (S) and SBSP securing the other two.
This time, the BJP is fielding UP minister Neelkanth Tiwari from the Varanasi South Assembly seat, Ravindra Jaiswal from Varanasi North constituency and Anil Rajbhar from Shivpur Assembly constituency. The Varanasi South constituency has been a stronghold of the BJP for two-and-a-half years. The BJP has fielded Tribhuvan Ram on Ajagara (reserve) seat and in Cantt, MLA Saurabh Srivastava.
The saffron party's state election in-charge for the state Dharmendra Pradhan has been in the constituency for a week, highlighting the importance the party places on the bastion. Besides, Amit Shah has also been making visits—the most recent on February 28 and March 1—to the district.
PM Modi is also likely to camp in the district from March 3, with party chief J P Nadda also heading to the district after ending campaigns in other places. Besides the national leaders, Bangalore MP Tejasvi Surya was in Varanasi on Monday to hold a campaign near the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
The party's Gujarat general secretary Ratnakar has also been campaigning in Varanasi for over a month, according to a report by The Indian Express.
“Ratnakar ji was party organisation secretary in Kashi and Gorakhpur regional units in UP before his elevation and deployment in Gujarat around a year back. As he has an organisational network and knowledge about the demography of the Varanasi region, he is holding meetings from mandal to region units every day. He also monitors the campaign programmes. For example, ahead of the PM’s address to booth functionaries, Ratnakar ji monitored every minute of the arrangements,” a party leader was quoted as saying in the report.
Senior RSS sahsarkaryawah Arun Kumar has also been camping in Varanasi for the past few days, as the BJP seeks to target specific groups, such as the Khatri community, women voters and "intellectual" crowds.
(With inputs from agency)
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