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The battle of Varanasi - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
THE pitched battle for Varanasi is reaching its peak as the D-day is approaching fast. This
part of the eastern Uttar Pradesh will go to
polls on May 12. BJP’s prime ministerial
candidate Narendra Modi is contesting from
here. He is facing Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi
Party and Ajay Rai of Congress. Modi
addressed a massive rally here the other day
and led a road show, covering a five kilometre
distance in the city in three and half hours as a
protest against the Election Commission’s
refusal to let him hold a rally in a communally
sensitive area of the constituency.
Modi is also contesting from Vadodra (Baroda)
in Gujarat which is considered a safe seat for
him. He has been the chief minister of the state
since 2001 winning four state assembly
elections in a row. Though Modi can be sure of
reaching Lok Sabha from Vadodra, the Varanasi
contest is important for him and his party from
many aspects.
Varanasi, also known as Benares, is the
spiritual capital of India. It is a holy place for
Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism as well.
Modi’s victory here can be played up as a
‘divine sanction’ to the party that has thrived in
the secular India on the Hindutva concept in
past two decades. But there is certainly more
to it than the subtle manoeuvres of the political
imagination of a supposedly devout electorate.
Varanasi is in eastern part of the most
populous Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. With a
population of 200 million, the state is a little
bigger than Pakistan. It has the biggest share
of 80 in the 543-seat Lok Sabha pie. No party
in India can think of ruling the central
government without making it big in UP and the
treacherous political terrain of the state has
never been a cakewalk for any party.
In 2009 Lok Sabha elections, four parties had
swept the bulk of seats and votes in UP and
BJP had ranked only the fourth, winning only
10 seats and securing 17.5 per cent of votes.
Congress had done only marginally better,
polling 18.5 per cent of votes, but was able to
translate it into 21 seats.
The top two parties which collectively won over
half of the Lok Sabha seats of the state, were
local parties. Samajwadi Party that currently
rules the state is categorised by the Election
Commission as a state party while the other,
Bahujan Samaj Party, has marginal presence
only in one other state besides UP.
The centrality of the two parties to the UP
politics was affirmed in the state assembly
elections held in 2012 when the two shared
among themselves 304 of the 403 member
provincial legislature with BJP bagging 47 and
Congress a paltry 28. The two biggest parties
of UP champion the cause of lower castes that
are legally categorised as Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
Though their political interests and social
boundaries are fragmented further, they
collectively form the majority of the electorate.
The lower castes are frustrated with India’s
grand old party, Congress, for its stark failure to
turn their fortunes but they cannot pin any
hopes on the BJP whose politics is entrenched
in upper caste Hindu ideology. BJP understands
that its ideological strength is its political
weakness. It had in recent past tried to strike
an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party to tap
into the ‘condemned’ but lucrative vote bank of
low castes. The party success has however
been less than impressive.
Samajwadi Party, strikes a chord with Congress
and has been providing ‘outside support’ to the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance at the
centre. Its leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his
son and the sitting Chief Minister of UP,
Akhilesh Yadav have earned Modi’s wrath
throughout the campaign.
In the 2014 elections, none of the four has a
political alliance with the other. In the words of
senior resider editor of Hindustan Times, Sunita
Arun, “the egocentric politics of the three
secular parties (SP, BSP and Congress) seems
to be helping BJP”.
There is however another vote bank in UP that
Modi is finding hard to break into, its 18.5 per
cent Muslims. In the Varanasi constituency too,
they are estimated to form between a fifth to a
fourth of electorate. BJP’s brief success in UP
has been around the time of Babri Mosque
incident.
BJP started its 2014 bid to win UP by
appointing Modi’s closest confidant Amit Shah
as the campaign manager in May last year.
Shah who is the general secretary of BJP is
accused of murders and masterminding fake
encounters in Gujarat. Hindu-Muslim riots broke
out in its Muzaffarnagar district in August-
September the same year taking lives and
raising communal tensions.
Though it is not easy to point the accusing
finger at one person but Amit Shah has tried to
rub salt into the communal wounds and
attempted to mint some political capital in the
present campaign. He told a gathering of Jats,
who had rioted with Muslims in Muzaffarnagar,
that they should vote for BJP to take revenge.
He was banned from addressing more rallies by
the EC. The ban was removed after Shah
apologised.
But playing the anti-Muslim communal card in
today’s UP probably has greater chances of
backfiring than raising your political capital. UP
is also known as the swing state. In the 2012
state assembly elections here, a vote swing of a
few percentage points switched fortunes from
BSP to SP. Samajwadi Party added just 3 per
cent votes to its 2007 vote share of 26 per cent
and raised its seat tally from just 97 to a
comfortable majority of 224. Most critiques
believe that Samajwadi success rested on its
winning over of Muslim voters.
Since a Lok Sabha seat comprises five state
assembly seats, finding the right balance
becomes an even more precarious job. The BJP
realises that it just can’t bully its way into this
china shop. In a symbolic move on Tuesday
Modi shared the stage with a well-known
Muslim freedom fighter, Nizamuddin while
addressing a rally at Rohaniya, Varanasi, and
touched the feet of 103-old former member of
Azad Hind Fauj led by nationalist hero Subhash
Chandra Bose.
But Modi’s new found ‘appeasement’ of
Muslims might be too little too late as many
are thought to have already accepted the Aam
Aadmi Party as a viable new choice. The
party’s leader Arvind Kejriwal is contesting
Modi on the Varanasi seat. His anti-communal,
anti-corruption stances and a simplistic
campaign focusing more on direct one-to-one
contacts led by his army of charged volunteers
is making a difference.
In a way the contest here is also between the
old style divisive politics and the fresh ways of
AAP. A defeat for Kejriwal, who is only
contesting from Varanasi will not only stop him
from reaching the parliament, it will make the
Modi-style politics a breather for some time.
THE pitched battle for Varanasi is reaching its peak as the D-day is approaching fast. This
part of the eastern Uttar Pradesh will go to
polls on May 12. BJP’s prime ministerial
candidate Narendra Modi is contesting from
here. He is facing Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi
Party and Ajay Rai of Congress. Modi
addressed a massive rally here the other day
and led a road show, covering a five kilometre
distance in the city in three and half hours as a
protest against the Election Commission’s
refusal to let him hold a rally in a communally
sensitive area of the constituency.
Modi is also contesting from Vadodra (Baroda)
in Gujarat which is considered a safe seat for
him. He has been the chief minister of the state
since 2001 winning four state assembly
elections in a row. Though Modi can be sure of
reaching Lok Sabha from Vadodra, the Varanasi
contest is important for him and his party from
many aspects.
Varanasi, also known as Benares, is the
spiritual capital of India. It is a holy place for
Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism as well.
Modi’s victory here can be played up as a
‘divine sanction’ to the party that has thrived in
the secular India on the Hindutva concept in
past two decades. But there is certainly more
to it than the subtle manoeuvres of the political
imagination of a supposedly devout electorate.
Varanasi is in eastern part of the most
populous Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. With a
population of 200 million, the state is a little
bigger than Pakistan. It has the biggest share
of 80 in the 543-seat Lok Sabha pie. No party
in India can think of ruling the central
government without making it big in UP and the
treacherous political terrain of the state has
never been a cakewalk for any party.
In 2009 Lok Sabha elections, four parties had
swept the bulk of seats and votes in UP and
BJP had ranked only the fourth, winning only
10 seats and securing 17.5 per cent of votes.
Congress had done only marginally better,
polling 18.5 per cent of votes, but was able to
translate it into 21 seats.
The top two parties which collectively won over
half of the Lok Sabha seats of the state, were
local parties. Samajwadi Party that currently
rules the state is categorised by the Election
Commission as a state party while the other,
Bahujan Samaj Party, has marginal presence
only in one other state besides UP.
The centrality of the two parties to the UP
politics was affirmed in the state assembly
elections held in 2012 when the two shared
among themselves 304 of the 403 member
provincial legislature with BJP bagging 47 and
Congress a paltry 28. The two biggest parties
of UP champion the cause of lower castes that
are legally categorised as Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
Though their political interests and social
boundaries are fragmented further, they
collectively form the majority of the electorate.
The lower castes are frustrated with India’s
grand old party, Congress, for its stark failure to
turn their fortunes but they cannot pin any
hopes on the BJP whose politics is entrenched
in upper caste Hindu ideology. BJP understands
that its ideological strength is its political
weakness. It had in recent past tried to strike
an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party to tap
into the ‘condemned’ but lucrative vote bank of
low castes. The party success has however
been less than impressive.
Samajwadi Party, strikes a chord with Congress
and has been providing ‘outside support’ to the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance at the
centre. Its leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his
son and the sitting Chief Minister of UP,
Akhilesh Yadav have earned Modi’s wrath
throughout the campaign.
In the 2014 elections, none of the four has a
political alliance with the other. In the words of
senior resider editor of Hindustan Times, Sunita
Arun, “the egocentric politics of the three
secular parties (SP, BSP and Congress) seems
to be helping BJP”.
There is however another vote bank in UP that
Modi is finding hard to break into, its 18.5 per
cent Muslims. In the Varanasi constituency too,
they are estimated to form between a fifth to a
fourth of electorate. BJP’s brief success in UP
has been around the time of Babri Mosque
incident.
BJP started its 2014 bid to win UP by
appointing Modi’s closest confidant Amit Shah
as the campaign manager in May last year.
Shah who is the general secretary of BJP is
accused of murders and masterminding fake
encounters in Gujarat. Hindu-Muslim riots broke
out in its Muzaffarnagar district in August-
September the same year taking lives and
raising communal tensions.
Though it is not easy to point the accusing
finger at one person but Amit Shah has tried to
rub salt into the communal wounds and
attempted to mint some political capital in the
present campaign. He told a gathering of Jats,
who had rioted with Muslims in Muzaffarnagar,
that they should vote for BJP to take revenge.
He was banned from addressing more rallies by
the EC. The ban was removed after Shah
apologised.
But playing the anti-Muslim communal card in
today’s UP probably has greater chances of
backfiring than raising your political capital. UP
is also known as the swing state. In the 2012
state assembly elections here, a vote swing of a
few percentage points switched fortunes from
BSP to SP. Samajwadi Party added just 3 per
cent votes to its 2007 vote share of 26 per cent
and raised its seat tally from just 97 to a
comfortable majority of 224. Most critiques
believe that Samajwadi success rested on its
winning over of Muslim voters.
Since a Lok Sabha seat comprises five state
assembly seats, finding the right balance
becomes an even more precarious job. The BJP
realises that it just can’t bully its way into this
china shop. In a symbolic move on Tuesday
Modi shared the stage with a well-known
Muslim freedom fighter, Nizamuddin while
addressing a rally at Rohaniya, Varanasi, and
touched the feet of 103-old former member of
Azad Hind Fauj led by nationalist hero Subhash
Chandra Bose.
But Modi’s new found ‘appeasement’ of
Muslims might be too little too late as many
are thought to have already accepted the Aam
Aadmi Party as a viable new choice. The
party’s leader Arvind Kejriwal is contesting
Modi on the Varanasi seat. His anti-communal,
anti-corruption stances and a simplistic
campaign focusing more on direct one-to-one
contacts led by his army of charged volunteers
is making a difference.
In a way the contest here is also between the
old style divisive politics and the fresh ways of
AAP. A defeat for Kejriwal, who is only
contesting from Varanasi will not only stop him
from reaching the parliament, it will make the
Modi-style politics a breather for some time.
Though i really want Kejru to win at Varanasi against all odds as Modi will win at gujrat and will leave Varanasi . Varanasi really needs someone to draw it out of backwardness.
