Lok Sabha polls 2014: Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah flay EC

VARANASI: Narendra Modi’s 5-km road show in Varanasi on Thursday failed to match the massive rally organised on the day he filed nominations, clash with the Election Commission notwithstanding. In keeping with the tentative campaign plan announced on Wednesday, the party ensured a strong protest led by senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Amit Shah outside the campus of the Banaras Hindu University till early afternoon.

Both Shah and Jaitley emphasised in their conversations with reporters about the “large” turnout for the BHU protest and blasted EC and the state government for “conniving to try and prevent Modi from campaigning”.

When ET visited the rally in Rohaniya’s Jagatpura, it found that a little less than half the ground was empty. Perhaps realising this, Modi gave a spin to his speech: “I have seen and addressed many rallies, but this is the first time that I am seeing a two-tier rally,” alluding to relatively lesser number of people on the fringes of the ground. Even the evening’s protest road show from the helipad inside BHU to BJP’s election campaign office in Sigra locality, could not ensure a high turnout of common citizens.

Anant Srivastava, a dealer of bags near Godowliya area of the city, was tense that his products could be damaged by the expectedly large number of people turning out for the road show. However, to his surprise, not an inch of his products were even touched by the relatively thin crowd.

AAP's Arvind Kejriwal conducted his own Ganga Puja at the Dashashwamedh Ghat in the evening to demonstrate that a puja needed no clearance from EC.