Uttar Pradesh battleground: In Kashi, BJP banks on Modi

VARANASI: Warming up for the final phase of polls in UP on March 8, when Varanasi votes, BJP has pinned all its hopes on PM Modi's `charisma' to mend the fault-lines in the five assembly segments of his Lok Sabha constituency for a repeat of the 2014 win.

Though the seats are a traditional stronghold of BJP , local members are apprehensive about at least three, Varanasi Dakhshini (South), Varanasi Uttari (North) and Varanasi cantonment. A section of party workers and supporters is seemingly unhappy about ticket distribution in the constituencies, where the SP-Congress alliance has strengthened the hand of the rivals.

Hence, the hopefuls have left it to Modi himself. “Chuk to hui hai...lekin Modiji idhar teen din pravas karenge suney hain ...sab thik ho jayega (there are problems, but Modi will be here for three days I am told, everything will be sorted out),“ said I B Singh, a 60-year-old local who runs a carpet factory in Bhadohi.

In Varanasi South, BJP replaced the party's six-time MLA Shyamdeb Roy Choudhury , 75, without consulting him. BJP contestant Neelkanth Tiwari is young but faces a factional fight within the party as well as a hostile Bengali commu nity that voted for “Dada“, as Roy Choudhury is popularly known, without considering his party affiliation. “He was the only Bengali representative from Benaras. We have more than three lakh Bengalis in the city... there will be a reaction for the treatment Dada got,“ said the owner of a Bengali restaurant. Also, delimitation has impacted the constituency by taking the Muslim population from 15,000 to 70,000. Congress' Rajesh Mishra is giving a tough fight to Tiwari as well.

In Varanasi North, incumbent BJP MLA Ravinder Jaiswal is locked in a tough contest with Samad Ansari, the SP-Congress alliance candidate. Fielded on a Congress ticket, Samad is a former SP member and thus has clout in both parties. Also, many don't see the BSP candidate splitting the minority vote.

In Varanasi Cantonment, BJP has fielded incumbent MLA Jyotsna Srivastav's son Saurav, to the dismay of local party workers who saw in this a bid to turn the seat into a pocketborough. Saurav's father Harish represented the seat before Jyotsna.

Local leaders feel Modi's presence will galvanise party workers. Modi's presence is expected to take the party's campaign to a high pitch in the final days before campaigning for the phase ends on March 6.