- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The Indian PM has won both the 2014 and 2019 national polls from the constituency of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, considered a strong bastion of his Hindu nationalist BJP.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE results of the recently held elections in five states in the country have not gone in their favour but India’s opposition bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) is in no mood of giving up. The bloc, comprising several opposition parties, was floated earlier this year to challenge prime minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in next year’s general elections and now, it is considering faces to take on the prime minister in his constituency of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh which has traditionally given India the most number of premiers.
India’s NDTV reported citing sources that the INDIA bloc is weighing high-profile names to challenge Modi in his seat which has voted for the BJP in every national election since 1991 (except 2004). Modi, who hails from the western state of Gujarat, won the 2014 and 2019 general elections from Varanasi.
In 2014, the BJP candidate grabbed more than 56 per cent votes while in 2019, his vote share went up to over 63 per cent.
The Congress, which once held the temple city, last won it in 2004 and both the Grand-Old Party and the INDIA bloc face a herculean task in defeating Modi in that seat.
The NDTV report said citing sources that the two names that have been floated so far are — Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of the Congress who has worked for the party in UP in the past.
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Kumar, 71, has been a federal minister in the past and is seen as one of the fiercest rivals of Modi’s BJP. Speculation has been rife over Kumar’s prime ministerial candidature although he has denied it publicly. However, both Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, his ally from Bihar, were reportedly unhappy when Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the eastern state of West Bengal and another strong Modi critic, floated the name of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the PM face.
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Kharge, 81, later said he wanted to focus on winning the election.
Vadra, the sister of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has not contested any election ever. In 2019, it was speculated that she would challenge Modi in Varanasi but it did not happen eventually and the Congress fielded Ajay Rai from there and he finished a poor third after Modi and Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party. Rai was also fielded against Modi in 2014 and he finished third on that occasion as well.
Her name reportedly got the backing of Banerjee.
Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi, could also be another option for the INDIA bloc. The Aam Aadmi Party had taken on Modi in Varanasi in the 2014 election, just months after founding the party, but finished a distant second to Modi, polling a little over 209,000 votes as against Modi’s 581,000 plus.
