The holy town of Kashi is waiting with bated breath for the big announcement -- that Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi. On Saturday, one could see groups of people gathered in front of their televisions, waiting for the word "go" to burst into celebration with the announcement of NaMo's candidature from here.
Even as people debated the advantage of Modi contesting from here, BJP workers gathered at Chitranjan Park in Godoulia under the leadership of Anoop Jaiswal with Holi colours and fire crackers for the big show post-announcement. Another group of BJP workers gathered at Assi under the leadership of Awanish Pandey. This group could not conceal its happiness. "This will be the first time that BJP's prime ministerial candidate will contest from the holy town of Baba Vishwanath," they all said at other places in the city, the people danced to the beats of drums and distributed sweets to one and all to mark the festival of colours, which had now an added importance because of Modi's expected candidature from this city.
Slogans like 'Yuvaon ne tai kiya hai ki Modi ko apnana hai', 'Kashi ki janata kare pukar, desh me Modi ki ho sarkar', 'Yah ashwamedh ka ghoda hai, BJP ne chhoda hai' kept renting the air at regular invervals.Several enthusiastic party workers could be seen donning Modi's mask, confident of his candidature from Varanasi lok Sabha seat.Interestingly, some local BJP leaders chose to play safe and avoided open expression of their pleasure. They said they could not express anything until the name of Modi was announced formally. Meanwhile, in view of growing popularity of Modi, the shopkeepers have packed colours and pichkaris (sprinklers) in packets bearing his picture.