All roads will be leading to Varanasi in the coming days with dazzling film stars and star political leaders converging on this political hot spot.
Political parties, meanwhile, admit that the battle is indeed getting intense with the growing popularity of BJP’s prime ministerial BJP candidate Narendra Modi, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal alongwith Congress leader Ajay Rai — who is a star in his own capacity among the local populace. All the political parties agree that everyone wants to head to Varanasi.
Anshul Srivastava secretary AAP while talking to The Pioneer said that they have a backing for almost hundred celebrities like Kejriwal, the schedule though is still being chalked out. “At Varanasi we will have some of the biggest stars especially those campaigning for Arvind Kejriwal — like Archana Puran Singh, Preity Zinta, Amrita Rao and many more.
The campaign starts with stars like Bollywood hot shot music director Vishal Dadlani, Raghu Ram of Roadies fame, singer Jasleen Rao, actors Ayub Khan, Harsh Chhaya and Raj Zutshi carrying on a roadshow in lucknow and then moving to Amethi and Varanasi. We have a strong backing for the Bollywood celebrities who are keen to show their support for Kejriwal,” said Anshul.
Manish Shukla from the BJP also confirms that everybody was keen to visit the city to support Narendra Modi’s campaign rally. Dreamgirl Hema Malini and shotgun Shatrughan Sinha were also expected to head to Varanasi, informed a member of the BJP adding that the party members were later told to concenterate on their areas first.
Pramod Singh, general secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, said that they will send whosoever the candidate asks for. “Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Varanasi and there will be members of the Mahila Congress and Youth Congress who will be heading to Varanasi. We will send whatever star campaigners our candidate asks for,” he said.
Rajendra Chowdhary from the Samajwadi Party said that Samajwadi supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will be in Varanasi in the coming days. Incidentally, it is not only the stars that are heading for Varanasi.
The Women’s organisations and other progressive movements are jointly organising a two-day intensive campaign from 1st to 2nd May in Varanasi on the issue of anti-communal Government.
“We aim to convey our messages to the people of Varanasi through streetplays, music and dialogue. We will be distributing flyers too to communicate our stand. Apart from organising meetings in Mohallas and villages we will also conduct door-to-door campaigning to reach-out to people in Varanasi. We together will be able to raise a strong voice against communal, anti-women, anti-poor and anti-labour movement forces,” said Arudhati Dhuru a woman activist from lucknow
However for all the buzz that will be created for Varanasi, the tourist inflow is very low. The spokesperson for one of the best known hotels in the city said that they have been expecting a good occupancy for elections but it was not the case. “It is a usual season like any other year wherein the occupancy is low. Apart from a few bookings, for those associated with elections, the occupancy is not good for tourists,” said the spokesperson.
Similarly a staff member of a well-known tourist bungalow at Varanasi.” The season is normal and the occupancy rate is rather low. Elections have not brought in the tourists,” he added.