All arrangements for peaceful polling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, going to polls tomorrow, have been completed.
A total of 19.97 lakh voters in Varanasi will decide the fate of 7 candidates in the fray including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main rival Congress candidate Ajay Rai.
At the same time, 37,226 first-time voters aged 18 to 19 years will also play an important role in this election. There are 1909 polling booths in the constituency in which over 400 are critical.
The PM only held a roadshow and addressed a Nari Shakti conference in Varanasi before filing his nomination papers on May 14. Though the PM addressed 22 public meetings and held 5 roadshows in Uttar Pradesh, he skipped Varanasi and let his cadre to canvass on his behalf.
However on the last day of the campaign yesterday, PM Modi came live on social media and gave an address in Bhojpuri for about five minutes. He even write letters yo his voters appealing them to support him.
At the same time, in these 16 days till now, four Chief Ministers, three Deputy CMs and 16 National Presidents, 14 Union Ministers and 11 ministers of Yogi government campaigned and sought votes for PM in Varanasi, claimed the BJP.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak held numerous public meetings also went for street-to-street public relations and met voters through small conferences.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav campaigned on almost all the seats of Purvanchal. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma attended the nomination and stayed for a day in Varanasi. Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis also campaigned in Varanasi.
On May 14, during nominations process of PM apart from Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Chief Ministers of three other states and national presidents of 16 political parties and other politicians participated in the nomination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Union Ministers and political leaders who campaigned for the PM included Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Minister Smriti Irani, Union Minister SP Baghel, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union Minister Giriraj Singh, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale. ,Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, Union Minister Anupriya Singh Patel and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
UP Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Minister Anil Rajbhar, Minister Jitin Prasad, Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma, Minister Sanjay Nishad, Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, Minister Dara Singh Chauhan, Minister of State Nitin Aggarwal, Minister of State Ravindra Jaiswal, and Minister of State Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu also campaigned for the PM.
On the other hand, oppisition campaign was led by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi from the Congress, who addressed public meetings and held road shows. MPs Dimple Yadav and Priyanka Gandhi held public meetings and road shows.
Former Union Ministers Salman Khurshid, PL Punia, Pramod Tiwari, Aradhana Mishra Mona, former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel, Bihar leaders Pappu Yadav and Ujjwal Raman Singh, former Minister Dr CP Rai took the responsibility of publicity.
On behalf of the PDM alliance, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi and top leader of Apna Dal Kamerawadi Pallavi Patel campaigned in Purvanchal.