Lok Sabha Polls 2014: Narendra Modi bags Varanasi, Lucknow for Rajnath Singh
New Delhi: After a stormy meeting that lasted nearly 11 hours, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi finally snatched away the coveted Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in eastern Uttar Pradesh from the party’s former national president and sitting MP, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. BJP chief Rajnath Singh, sitting MP from Ghaziabad, will now be contesting from Lucknow.
Dr Joshi has been shifted to Kanpur Lok Sabha seat. Mr Modi is also expected to contest from another Lok Sabha seat, in Gujarat. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley will be contesting from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in Punjab, replacing ex-cricketer Navjot Sidhu who was offered other choices, but refused.
The announcement also marked the gradual isolation of the party’s old guard and emergence of the Modi team. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh’s son, Abhishek Singh, has been fielded from Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat in that state. Shatrughan Sinha managed to retain his Patna Saheb Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.
The BJP finalised 55 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP at its central election committee meeting on Saturday. The states discussed and some of the seats finalised included Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar and Arunachal Pradesh.
The next meeting of the party CEC is on March 19. Celebrations broke out in Varanasi with saffron supporters pouring out into the streets chanting Har Har Modi, ghar ghar Modi. Varanasi was fiercely contested with Dr Joshi fighting to retain the seat till the last moment.
However, under tremendous pressure from all quarters, he finally relented and made way for the BJP’s man of the moment. The Allahabad seat has gone to Keshri Nath Tripathi.The meeting also finalised all seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats.
By nominating Mr Modi from Varanasi, the BJP hopes his candidacy will polarise the vote bank in all the adjoining Lok Sabha berths. Varanasi also has a symbolic significance as the party believes that Mr Modi contesting from this holiest of the holy cities would demonstrate his commitment towards Hindutva, though he was seeking a wider mandate on the basis of his development agenda. While Mr Modi will also be filing his nomination from Gujarat, his contesting from UP will pitch him at the national level.
