Keeping up with UP | Varanasi waits for its representative Narendra Modi to visit

There’s a sense of hope, especially from Modi’s statements that his relationship with the people of Kashi was beyond that of a public representative.

Varanasi, often described as Hinduism’s holiest city, has only twice elected a member of parliament three times. Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi who won from the city in 2014, 2019 and this year, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Shanker Prasad Jaiswal was elected thrice. Jaiswal won in the 1996 general elections and then in two subsequent mid-term polls in 1998 and 1999 when the country was going through a turbulent coalition phase.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures during the Kisan Samman Sammelan (farmer's honour conference) on the outskirts of Varanasi on June 18, 2024. (Photo by Niharika KULKARNI / AFP)(AFP)

Even stalwarts like Congress party’s Kamalapati Tripathi and BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi made it only once to the Lok Sabha from here.

This year’s result, however, was humbling for the party, as Modi’s victory margin plummeted sharply: from 479505 in 2019 to 152513 in 2024. Ahead of this year’s election, BJP functionaries, clearly oblivious of ground realities, had fixed an ambitious target of a 10 lakh victory margin, given that Modi’s victory was a foregone conclusion.

It was a double whammy for the BJP as both the margin in Varanasi and the party’s overall tally in Uttar Pradesh was far below expectation.

Three months after the election, and after endless rounds of discussions in the holy city’s famed streetside eateries, many party workers continue to be crestfallen; some expressed remorse for letting Modi down in terms of the margin.

A sense of resentment is also growing among local residents, at least among those HT spoke with, about outsiders grabbing city development projects while locals aren’t getting their share. This is an issue that the Congress party has also aggressively raised. “We certainly credit Modi for changing the face of the city but we should also economically grow alongside, why are outsiders getting major projects,” one resident asked.

Party workers demanded course corrections, especially in the governance of the city. While some are of the view that the city is indebted to Modi who pumped in over ₹40,000 crore in various development projects and welfare schemes, others accuse the local BJP leadership of keeping the PM in the dark before the election about simmering resentment among traders over several problems.

There’s a sense of hope too, especially from Modi’s statements that his relationship with the people of Kashi was intrinsic and beyond that of a public representative.

One local BJP office bearer HT spoke to said he wants the prime minister to have direct communication with grassroots party workers who want to share their thoughts with him. Undoubtedly, the party workers are demoralised because of their resentment of a coterie of leaders who dominated the campaign while completely sidelining them in the run-up to polls.

There is much speculation about Modi’s next visit to Varanasi. “He made 45 visits to the city and gave projects worth over ₹40,000 crores in ten years, when would he visit his Kashi next,” one BJP worker asked. As of now, locals expect him to visit during Dev Deepawali though there is no confirmation as yet. The party worker said: “We want him to come and meet us, just as he held a session with about 25,000 women before the elections.”

Raj Kumar Das, a senior office bearer of the BJP, hails from Gujarat. He said people are anguished over the victory margin but Modi’s relationship with Kashi is very close. “He is not only monitoring the development works but also keeping track of what’s going on,” Das said.

Another party leader said, “The result must have hurt Modi. But he is too seasoned a leader to break his relationship with the city like Rahul Gandhi had snapped ties with Amethi after losing it.”

Party workers quote Modi who in June had said that he was indebted to the people of Varanasi — as they not only chose him as MP for a third time but also chose a Prime Minister. In fact, the late BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee often used to tell his voters in Lucknow, “If you want me PM, make me MP.”

Sunita Aron is a consulting editor with the HT based in Lucknow. You can find her on X as @overto. The weekly column, Keeping up with UP tackles everything from politics to social and cultural mores in the country's most populous state. The views expressed are personal.