Prestige of none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at stake particularly in City South Assembly constituency of Varanasi, which is supposed to be bastion of saffron brigade as Congress nominee with backing of the SP is giving tough contest to BJP candidate for the first time after 1989. And, realising this very fact the PM visited Kal Bhairav Mandir to seek blessing of Baba Kal Bhairav, worshiped as Kotwal of this holy city, for the first time after being elected as MP from here and becoming the Prime Minister.
Puccka Mahal, situated along the holy river Ganga, is said to be Mini India where people of almost all States live and they are supposed to be traditional voters of BJP. With these traditional voters the BJP leader Shyamdev Roy Chaudhary ‘Dada’ registered record victory from this constituency for seven consecutive times since 1989. Though, he is also popular among common voters with his clean image and simplicity.
But this time, the BJP denied ticket to him and fielded new face Neelkanth Tiwari who is seeking vote in the name of the PM and works done by sitting MlA Dada who had earlier denied to electioneering but later on agreed to make canvassing in party favour after meeting with party chief Amit Shah.
Though, the Congress had failed in giving fight to BJP nominee in 2012 but this time it has fielded its former MP Rajesh Mishra to garner Brahmin votes which are in sizable number in the constituency. In 2012, the SP and QED had fielded Muslim candidates eying for votes of minority community which plays deciding role in constituency and both had made about 24 percent vote share. The BSP had also fielded Muslim candidate which had secured around 6 percent vote. In 2012, the election in this constituency had visibly witnessed division of Muslim votes among QED, SP and BSP.
This time, neither QED nor SP had fielded its candidate and the BSP had pitched Brahmin candidate Rakesh Tripathi against the BJP nominee who also belongs to same community. The SP is backing Congress as per pre-poll alliance with it and the SP-Congress combination seems to be strong this time than earlier.
The BSP candidate Rakesh Tripathi is trying hard to woo Muslim voters in the name of the party chief Mayawati besides luring voters of his community but the inclination of minority community seems toward SP which is backing Congress nominee.
If the Congress candidate Rajesh Mishra succeeded in convincing Muslims he could put strong contest before the BJP candidate Neelkanth Tiwari who has nothing to his credit.
The unknown face of Tiwari is also posing problem before the BJP to give a momentum to its electioneering in favor of its candidate. Though, the hundreds of BJP workers from Gujrat and RSS leaders are camping in this constituency to maintain winning spree of saffron brigade this time too.
The PM also held election meeting in this constituency to stop diversion at least of party base voters who are annoyance over party ticket.
Realising the polarising factor on religious ground the Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav also conducted road show which covered maximum Muslim dominated areas of this constituency to polarise votes of minority community. There is no division in minority community as neither QED nor BSP fielded Muslim candidates like in previous election and if Muslims voted en masse in favor of candidate of alliance it would be beneficial for Congress-SP alliance candidate.
The political observers made analyst that the visit of the PM to this temple was to give a clear message to his traditional voters to remain unity as the Congress and the BSP nominees are trying to make a dent in traditional vote bank of saffron brigade.
In this constituency, only the PM Modi will win and lose the election this time as he is in center of electioneering.