It’s rich versus poor in Varanasi: At stake is BJP’s dream of installing Narendra Modi as prime minister

By Nachiketa Desai*

The ganging up of forces with money and muscle power has helped polarization of voters on class line that cuts across caste and communal alignments. The battle of the ballots in Varanasi is fast turning into a struggle for survival for the poor, deprived and the oppressed.
The battle of Varanasi has become crucial for Narendra Modi whose defeat would shatter Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) dream of seeing him as the prime minister. Hence, the BJP, backed by the organized cadre of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, has pulled out all stops – loosening strings of its bottomless money bag to buy support.
Over 5,000 Modi supporters have been brought to Varanasi in buses from Gujarat. They have been lodged in various Gujarati dharmashalas and the sprawling hospice of the Swami Narayan temple. Jain businessmen from Maharashtra and Karnataka have come by their own vehicles to garner support for Modi from their community.

Freebies in the form of watches, pen sets, sarees and T-shirts have been distributed among youth and women in the constituency. Groups of youth can be seen zooming around in motor cycles with BJP stickers. A 24x7 community kitchen provides free food to the BJP workers.

A manual scavenger in Varanasi

BJP has formed polling booth level teams comprising 20 workers for each booth and each worker has been assigned 60 voters to be ‘taken care of’ and brought for voting on the polling day on May 12. A detailed poll management plan has been put in place with the target of ensuring a victory margin of 300,000 votes for Modi.
Modi is facing challenge from anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party and underworld don Ajay Rai of the Congress. Mukhtar Ansari, who has been released on parole from Agra jail to contest election from the Ghoshi Lok Sabha seat in the adjoining Gazipur district, has extended support to his arch rival Rai. Ansari is alleged to have gunned down Rai’s elder brother Avadhesh Rai.
The newly forged alliance between Rai and Ansari has not gone down well with the members of their respective communities – Bhumihars and Muslims. While Bhumihars are likely to gravitate towards the BJP on the polling day, Muslim votes are expected to get split between Congress and AAP.
“Mukhtar Ansari’s decision to support Ajay Rai has thwarted BJP’s game plan to polarize Hindus against Muslims. Varanasi will now witness a Hindu versus Hindu battle,” says Samajwadi Party spokesman Shatrudra Prakash, three-time MLA and former minister. All the three main contestants, Modi, Rai and Kejriwal are Hindus.

Arvind Kejriwal vs Narendra Modi: Rallies while filing nomination

With muscle and money power conspicuously rallying behind Modi and Rai, the poor have begun identifying Kejriwal as ‘one of us’. Cycle rickshaw pullers, weavers, artisans like blacksmith, capenters and potters, roadside vegetable vendors, scavengers, boatmen, small shop keepers are seen sporting the white AAP cap.
Activists of trade unions affiliated to the Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI-ML and even INTUC are campaigning for Kejriwal. Non-government organizations working among the weaker sections and women too are mobilizing support for Kejriwal. This has further bolstered Kejriwal’s image as the only candidate who would work for the interest of the common people and not those money bags who are financing Modi’s election campaign or pay extortion money to the underworld mafia represented by Rai and Ansari.

Kejriwal's direct Q & A session with people

AAP’s manifesto for Varanasi, which the party calls its pledge to the people, has addressed the burning problems of the common man of this oldest living city. The pledge drawn on the basis of door-to-door consultation with the people of Varanasi promises a transparent, people-oriented, accountable development plan for weavers, artisans, boatmen and fishermen, small traders and owners of small industries.
“Our manifesto is not static, it is dynamic and people are invited to send in their suggestions. We will work towards fulfilling our promises even after the elections, whether we win or lose,” says Manish Sisodia, former minister in Kejriwal’s Delhi government.
“We will exert pressure on the state and central governments to accord special status to Varanasi as the world spiritual centre where Islam, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism have co-existed. People know that we can go to any extent to put pressure on the powers that be,” he added.
---
*Senior journalist currently in Varanasi. Pix by Nachiketa Desai

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog