UP Election: Mamta Banerjee played, rally in Banaras and eyes on Delhi’s chair

File photo: Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav.

Image Credit source: File photo

Uttar Pradesh Election (UP Election) I sang the work of campaigning for the last phase of elections to be held on Monday. With the approaching of elections, it seemed as if the key to the power of the state lies in Banaras itself. The way the big leaders of the opposition were seen circling in Banaras, it seemed like this. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (Mamata Banerjee) On Wednesday, visited Banaras, visited the temple, saw the Ganga Aarti and the next day, while addressing a rally, announced that the Samajwadi Party is going to play in Uttar Pradesh. Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav in that rally (Akhilesh yadav) And Jayant Chaudhary was also present. On the other hand, Didi was trying to play in the rally and on the other hand Priyanka Gandhi reached the Kabir Math in Banaras for a four-day stay, with the aim of wooing Muslim voters. The next day, Priyanka’s elder brother Rahul Gandhi also came to Banaras, paid obeisance in the temples and took photographs with sandalwood tika on his head. Then a joint rally of brother-sister duo took place.

Since Banaras is the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is obvious that Modi was bound to come to Banaras. And when Modi would come, then Union Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda also had to go round. For once, it seemed that the capital of Uttar Pradesh is not going to be shifted to Banaras or it will be decided by the results of the five assembly constituencies under the Banaras Lok Sabha seat that whose government will be formed in Uttar Pradesh.

Mathematics of Banaras Lok Sabha seat

There are five assembly constituencies under the Banaras Lok Sabha seat, their names are Rohaniya, Banaras North, Banaras South, Banaras Cantt and Sewapuri. In the 2017 elections, where BJP candidates won four seats, the candidate of BJP’s ally Apna Dal had won in Sewapuri. In 2017, BJP’s flag was seen in Banaras and the BJP government was formed in Lucknow. Now this time, leaders like Mamta Banerjee, Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Jayant Yadav reached there to find the key to the same power, although in the last phase of voting tomorrow, besides the five seats of Banaras, 49 other seats are also going to vote.

The attraction of leaders of opposition parties towards Banaras must have been not only because Banaras is a city of temples and they desperately need Bhole Nath’s blessings to win the election, but because Modi is the Lok Sabha MP from Benares. He is more interested in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections than the five assembly constituencies of Banaras. In 2024, Modi will try to score a hat-trick of victory from Banaras.

Efforts from now on to defeat Modi from Banaras

There is a saying in English, strike where the pain is the most. That is, if the opposition is dreaming of coming to power by defeating BJP in 2024, then what can be better than that to start efforts to defeat Modi in Banaras from now on. It is natural to ask the question that what is the work of Didi in Banaras? Trinamool Congress is not even contesting elections in Uttar Pradesh. This was Didi’s second visit to Uttar Pradesh, while in Goa, where the Trinamool Congress is contesting the assembly elections, Mamata Banerjee did not even visit the state after the announcement of the elections. Didi’s election campaign for the Samajwadi Party was her compulsion. Didi aspires to become the Prime Minister of India in 2024, for which she will need the support of other opposition parties. If the Samajwadi Party government is formed in Uttar Pradesh, then Samajwadi Party will play an important role in who will be the prime ministerial candidate from the opposition side. Even though the Samajwadi Party did not win the elections, Didi has laid her net so that the Samajwadi Party keeps distance from the Congress party.

However, during the West Bengal elections held last year, the Trinamool Congress had announced that Mamata Banerjee would contest the Lok Sabha elections from Banaras in 2024, although this announcement has not been mentioned again after her defeat in the assembly elections from Nandigram. Such didi is a stubborn kind of leader. She had gone to Nandigram to teach a lesson to Shuvendu Adhikari. The officers were leaving his side and contesting the elections on a BJP ticket. The dice turned upside down and in the desire to teach a lesson, learned a lesson from Didi herself. Didi had to contest a by-election from her old Bhawanipur area to occupy the chief minister’s post. If she sticks to her decision to contest from Banaras, then she will need the support of the Samajwadi Party and its allies, which she is already preparing for. That is, the rally was in Banaras, but didi’s eyes were fixed on the chair of Delhi.

Like Didi, another leader is also stubborn

Another stubborn leader like Didi is Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. In the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, he reached the New Delhi Assembly constituency against the then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Dikshit was defeated and the Congress party’s defeat from Delhi became such that in the last two elections in the Delhi Assembly, not a single MLA of the Congress party has been elected. Kejriwal also aspires to become the Prime Minister like Mamta Banerjee, so in 2014 he reached Banaras to contest against Modi, but he got such a crushing defeat here that he forgot the way to Banaras.

By the way, like Banaras, the Ganges river passes through Kolkata too. There is a famous and ancient Kali temple on the banks of the Ganges. How much filth is there in and around that temple, it is not hidden from anyone. Didi may have seen and experienced how Modi got the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor built, removed the encroachments between the temple and the river Ganges and made Banaras beautiful. If Didi wants to experience Nandigram once again in Banaras, then it is a different matter, otherwise she should find a safe seat like Bhawanipur from now on. It should also be expected that instead of teaching Modi a lesson, he should learn a lesson from Modi. The way Modi got the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor constructed, if Mamta Banerjee gets Kolkata’s Kali Mandir Corridor constructed, removes all the encroachments from the temple to the Ganges, then perhaps it will be better for him and with the blessings of Kali Maa, he will become the Prime Minister of India. The dream can be fulfilled, not just with the slogan Khela Hobe.

(The author is a senior journalist, the views expressed in the article are the personal of the author.)

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