Varanasi: As the Lok Sabha elections 2024 draw near, the Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh is a seat to watch out for with a bilateral battle between sitting MP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai.
The Samajwadi Party has left the seat for the Congress as part of a pre-poll alliance with the grand old party deciding to field Ajay Rai from this seat. Significantly, the SP and the BSP have never won the Varanasi seat in the history of the Lok Sabha elections in the country.
Congress Vs BJP in Varanasi: In the history of the Lok Sabha elections, the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency has witnessed a bilateral contest between the Congress and the BJP with the two parties winning the seat seven times each. In the years 1952-1957 and 1962, Raghunath Singh of Congress had scored a hat-trick of victories in Varanasi.
SN Singh of CPM in 1967, Rajaram Shastri of Congress in 1971, Chandrashekhar of Bharatiya Lok Dal in 1977, Kamalapati Tripathi of Congress in 1980, Shyamlal Yadav of Congress in 1984, Anil Shastri of Janata Dal in 1989, Shreesh Chand of BJP in 1991 emerged victorious from the seat. Likewise, BJP's Shankar Prasad Jaiswal in 1996-1998 and 1999, Dr. Rajesh Mishra of Congress in 2004, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi of BJP in 2009, Narendra Modi of BJP in 2014 and 2019 have won from this seat.
Varanasi a Distant Dream for SP and BSP: Interestingly, neither SP nor the BSP, which have ruled Uttar Pradesh have bagged Varanasi seat in the Lok Sabha elections history. Even after being in power, these parties have failed to represent the seat even once. Samajwadi Party has ruled the state thrice whereas Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party has won power four times. But both these parties have not been able to win the seat of Varanasi.
Public Mood of 'Culture and Religion': Political analyst Prof RP Pandey believes that one reason for the failure of SP and BSP to open their account in Varanasi is that the city is the cultural capital of the country, which the twin parties have failed to bank on. “The mood of the people here is more related to culture and religion. SP and BSP are against both of them. BSP stops people from going to the temple. No one from SP has gone to Ram temple yet. Therefore, it is not possible for their candidates to win from here,” Pandey said.
