General Elections 2014: Congress may tap 'brahmin angst' to drown NaMo chants in Varanasi

NEW DELHI: Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh has not yet heard from his party about the Varanasi seat or his candidature. Though he still proclaims his intention to fight any parliamentary constituency in the country, including Varanasi, his party seems to be looking at Brahmin and Bhumihar candidates.

Rajya Sabha member and former Congress legislative party leader in Uttar Pradesh assembly Pramod Tiwary, former Varanasi MP Rajesh Mishra and five-time legislator and Congress MLA Ajai Rai are the front-runners. Rai, a former BJP MLA, had switched sides and contested against Murli Manohar Joshi only to come third after BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari in 2009, Mishra was a miserable fourth.

More than fielding a party nominee against BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, Congress is seriously looking at the possibility to tap the “Brahmin angst” across Uttar Pradesh over the perceived “neglect of the community by the BJP”. According to a senior Congress functionary, “there is a feeling that BJP has neglected Brahmins”

“They feel BJP has slighted some of their leaders like MM Joshi by asking him to shift out of his constituency. This may turn into caste polarisation in the state,” the Congress functionary said. The attempt is obviously to focus on the traditional Brahmin-Thakur contradiction in UP, particularly with Rajnath Singh as the BJP president.

In this context, Digvijaya Singh may not be an ideal candidate in Varanasi. In an interview to ET, Singh said, “No one in the party has asked whether I would like to contest or not. But it has been in circulation in the media for the last two weeks. It is for the party to decide."

He also ruled out the possibility of Congress extending support to a common candidate against Modi. The Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal and Ansari are already in the fray. “Why are you increasing Modi’s stature? We shall fight Modi like any other BJP candidate,” said Singh.

Varanasi goes to polls in the last phase on May 12 and the party has time till April 24 to select a candidate for the seat and hence is in no hurry at all.