UP Election last phase: All eyes on Varanasi, PM Modi to hold roadshows, campaign extensively
Categories: Politics news
As the high-octane Uttar Pradesh polls enter the last leg, all eyes are on the electoral battle in and around Varanasi which will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi and prominent leaders from opposition parties leading their campaigns. Modi, who has been criss-crossing the state all along in the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections, will lead the poll blitzkrieg in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi for two days on March 4 and 5. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati have already marked their attendance in Varanasi and neighbouring areas. It is not yet known whether Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Varanasi or not before the campaign ends on Saturday evening. However, his party leaders including MP Sanjay Singh have been moving around Varanasi for quite some days. Locked in a fierce poll battle with the Samajwadi Party in particular, winning a majority of seats out of the 54 constituencies in the end round, is a must for the BJP to continue its sway in the 2024 general election. Riding on the "Modi wave", the BJP-led coalition had won in all the eight assembly segments of Varanasi in 2017 and so was the case in the majority of the seats in the neighbouring districts.