With Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to campaign for his party candidates by stationing himself in Varanasi, Opposition leaders including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too are headed for Kashi to seek votes for BJP’s strong contender Samajwadi Party led by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Congress, which is fighting in the high-pitched four-cornered assembly elections, has also rushed its key leaders to campaign hard for the remaining polls on March 7 for which the campaign will end on March 5.
Banerjee reached Varanasi late evening after the massive victory in the municipal bodies elections in the State in which Trinamool Congress won 102 municipalities of the 108 polled. Banerjee will hold a joint rally with Akhilesh Yadav in Varanasi, which is the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday and return to Kolkata on Friday evening. Last year, Mamata-led TMC gave a drubbing to BJP in general and Modi in particular in the West Bengal assembly elections where the ruling party at Centre had hoped to form a government.
“I am going to Varanasi to campaign for Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav. I will also visit the Vishwanath Mandir Ghat and light a Diya there,” Mamata said at Kolkatta airport.
Banerjee had tweaked her party's poll anthem of "khela hobe' to 'Khela Hoga' (the game is on) and stressed “if Bengal can do it (defeat BJP), so can Uttar Pradesh".
Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary will join Akhilesh Yadav and Banerjee, for Thursday's joint poll rally in Varanasi. RLD is fighting the UP assembly elections in tie-up with SP. Banerjee had visited Uttar Pradesh on February 7-8 and held a joint press conference with Yadav in Lucknow where she predicted SP's victory against the BJP, like her party in West Bengal state.
Varanasi goes to polls on March 7 during the seventh and last phase of assembly polls in UP. Results of the seven-phase UP assembly polls will be declared on March 10.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Varanasi on Friday while his sibling and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi will address three rallies in the pooravanchal belt including Varanasi during the next two days.
Rahul has been keeping away from UP assembly campaigns as he campaigned extensively in other states like Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur where voting is over and results are awaited on March 10.
Other Congress leaders like Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Rajasthan CM, Ashok Gehlot are also scheduled to be in the region.