All roads lead to Varanasi for the BJP as the high-octane elections enter the last phase in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency is set to vote.

Besides the BJP’s national leaders, over 200 campaigners from other states have been deployed here to weed out hurdles from Modi’s path, prompting many to wonder why he needs such aggressive campaigning for a seat that he has been winning since 2014.

While some think Modi wants to win the VIP seat by a bigger vote margin, others claim that victory would not be a cakewalk for him this time because INDIA bloc candidate Ajay Rai is getting huge support from several communities.

Modi had won Varanasi by a margin of 3.71 lakh votes in 2014 and by 4.79 lakh in 2019. The BJP claims the margin would be around 10 lakh this time. The constituency has around 20 lakh voters.

On Tuesday, many residents of Jammu and Kashmir were brought to Varanasi by social organisations associated with the RSS and the BJP to campaign for Modi. They were sent to Muslim areas to address street meetings and interact with people.

Belal Ahmad, who identified himself as the sarpanch of Tahab village in Pulwama, addressed many small meetings in the city’s Muslim pockets and lauded Modi.

“There was no development in my state before 2014. We were identified as terrorists. But the situation is improving after the BJP government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution,” Ahmad said.

Raja Sayyed, a social worker from Kashmir, said: “Very soon, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will become a part of India.”

Naznin Ansari, national president of the Muslim Mahila Foundation, an RSS wing, is also in Varanasi to woo Muslim voters.

However, most Muslims said they had lost all hope in Modi because he was “acting as if has been elected to deceive the people”.

Hyderabad BJP candidate Madhavi Latha is in Varanasi as well. Although she is no match for AIMIM leader and five-time Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Madhavi has been presented in Varanasi as a symbol of resistance against the “rise of Muslims in politics”.

The BJP’s Varanasi district unit organised several meetings of Madhavi on Tuesday and introduced her as “a highly educated social worker, protector of Hindu Dharma, chairperson of several charitable trusts and Bharat Natyam dancer”.

Madhavi mostly spoke about “the positive changes in Kashmir” under Modi’s rule.

“We don’t know whether it will help us but the fact remains that election is a game of perception,” a local BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity.

“Textile minister Piyush Goyal, BJP MP C.R. Patil, BJP spokesperson Aman Sinha, women and child development minister Smriti Irani, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and many others are here today (Tuesday). There is a possibility of all the senior leaders visiting in the next two days,” he added.

The BJP has also engaged leaders with caste associations to woo their respective communities in Varanasi. Surendra Narayan, former MLA of Rohaniya, has been made Modi’s election in-charge and assigned to meet members of the Bhumihar community.

Rai, the INDIA bloc candidate, is a Bhumihar.

Dilip Patel, the Kashi Prant president of the BJP and an OBC from Mirzapur, is in charge of public contact programmes here. Hansraj Vishwakarma, MLC and district BJP chief, is meeting the OBC voters. Ratnakar, state BJP general secretary, has arrived here from Deoria to campaign among the Brahmins. Ashwini Tyagi, a leader of west Uttar Pradesh, is also meeting
Brahmin voters.

Satish Dwivedi, basic education minister of Uttar Pradesh, and Sunil Bansal, national general secretary (organisation) of the BJP, are also camping here and managing the affairs from the BJP office in Mahmoorganj. Arun Pathak, a leader of Brahmins in Bundelkhand, is meeting the voters personally.

There were a total of 41 nominations in Varanasi out of which the papers of 33 were cancelled. One of the candidates withdrew his nomination.

Besides Modi and Rai, Athar Jamal Lari of the BSP is in the fray.

“Lari and the remaining four candidates would harm the INDIA nominee in the fray. They include two Independents, Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Sanjay Kumar, and Gagan Rakesh Yadav of Apna Dal (K),” said a local journalist on the condition of anonymity.

Varanasi votes on June 1