In Varanasi neighbourhood not even a saffron ripple, it’s an SP-BSP clash

GHAZIPUR/MAU: It's a wave that hasn't travelled too far. About 30km down the road from Varanasi in the neighbouring constituency of Ghazipur, there's little evidence of BJP's self-proclaimed Modi wave. Not a single poster of PMhopeful Narendra Modi can be seen on walls, trees, backs of commercial vehicles... anywhere. From Saidpur to Sadat, BSP and SP are locked in a fight in Ghazipur where BJP is invisible and Congress inconsequential.

Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati are competing for each other's vote bank and banking on the caste calculus. Mulayam refused a ticket to sitting MP Radhe Mohan and gave it to Sukanya Kushwaha, wife of Babu Singh Kushwaha, who is a former aide of Mayawati and is accused in the National Rural Health Mission scam.

Mayawati has chosen Kailash Nath Yadav, a strongman of sorts. BSP has a new slogan for Yadav: Haathi Ka Vote Aur Jati Ka Vote. He is expected to get the core BSP vote and some of the four lakh Yadav votes. Mulayam expects Kushwaha's wife to divert some BSP votes their way since her husband was a strong Kushwaha leader.

When it comes to Muslims, their tempestuous relationship with Mulayam continues. They blame him, throw tantrums but stand behind SP in the booths, at least in Ghazipur and Mau. Mohammaduddin, entrusted with block-level election management, says, "Which Hindu leader was ever called a maulana? How can we forget him?" Half an hour further down the road, BSP supporters are waiting at Baurwan for Kailash Nath Yadav. What of Modi and the wave? "BJP thinks there is a wave and goofed in giving the ticket to Manoj Sinha and not Arun Singh. Had Singh contested, the battle would have been triangular. BJP is not even in the reckoning here," says BSP worker Mahendra Prasad, adding that caste alone matters in this part of the world.

In Todarpur village, Vipin Yadav, preparing for a teaching job, says Modi is talked about. "We want Modi to become PM. But in Ghazipur voting for BJP will mean wasting your vote. No BJP worker has come to us so far. We will go with SP," he says. In the village of Deva with around 2,000 voters, mostly women, Modi is being discussed feverishly but the outcome will depend on old family and caste loyalties.

In Mau, BSP's sitting MP Dara Singh Chauhan is leading from the front. "Our vote is maun (silent) that talks less but votes in tandem. BJP's Rajiv Rai has been left to fend for himself," he says. In the BJP office, a few workers have just returned from villages. "A meeting needs to be called to chalk out how to spread the word that BJP is the frontrunner," says Umesh to his friends who have found it difficult to hard-sell a transient wave over permanent markers of identity.