UP Polls: Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi offer prayers at Kashi Vishwanath Temple

Of the eight assembly constituencies in Varanasi district, five – Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantonment, Sevapuri, Rohaniya – fall under the prime minister’s Lok Sabha constituency. The party did not want to take any risk by announcing a CM candidate, who, it felt, was not favorable for a cross-section of voters in Uttar Pradesh. The Prime Minister noted that the Centre had reduced stent prices which would directly benefit people as cost of treatment would come down.

He will return to his parliamentary constituency this afternoon for a two-day visit, with less than 48 hours to go before the campaign for Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll’s final phase comes to an end. “We have done enough work in Varanasi as elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh and we are sure that the people will vote for us”, said Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. “I have the courage to do so”, the Prime Minister said. “Election commission did not allow me to carry out rally in Kashi”. Permission for the rally was granted at the last moment. I can take hard decisions to rid the country of its problems. Senior BJP leaders including Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley had sat on a dharna in protest.

Taking potshots at the Congress over its run of losses in the recent polls, he said one day, research would be done to find out if it once existed, as it is “disappearing from everywhere”. Akhilesh Yadav, chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader, also claims to have put the state on the fast track to development.

“The formation of a BJP government in the state is a certainty now”, he asserted.

PM Narendra Modi on Saturday prayed at Kashi Vishwanath and Kal Bhairav temples as part of his roadshow to woo voters in Varanasi (pix). “Modi ji’s new slogan is “cashless cashless japna, janta ka paisa apna”, he said.

In Varanasi North too, it is the Congress which is contesting the BJP which is facing a rebel candidate named Sujit Singh Tikku, former president of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha and an intrepid campaigner from the Rajput community.

But it’s not as if everyone has taken demonetisation in the way it has been projected by the government.

After its failure in the Bihar elections – where Modi and Shah were over exposed in a high decibel campaign – and the success in Assam elections – where local leaders got prominence in a comparatively low profile campaign – BJP leaders were relying more on the Assam model in UP till the third phase. For him, the election to the 403-seat state assembly is really important.

Stick to your core base: The BJP is believed to be a party of upper caste – Brahmin, Rajput, Baniya – people who no matter what largely vote for the saffron party. “But during their temple visit today, there was power outage”.

“We will form a Government of young people”.

Rahul and Akhilesh are again hovering in the vicinity with the Congress Vice-President holding public rallies on Sunday in Mirzapur, Jaunpur and Sonbhadra while the UP Chief Minister is addressing a public rally in Chandauli. It is for this reason that the significance of the five-odd seats in Varanasi can’t be undermined even if it’s only a small proportion of the 400-plus seats in Uttar Pradesh.

“In a family differences do crop up”.