UP 70: As Both BJP, SP Proclaim Win, Answers Lie in Epic Phase 7 Battle in Azamgarh, Varanasi
The nearly two-month-long campaigning in Uttar Pradesh has culminated in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with both the BJP and Samajwadi Party proclaiming comprehensive victories ahead of Uttar Pradesh election results on March 10.
Travelling across the Phase 7 seats, which comprise the strongholds of BJP and SP, threw up a keen contest with both sides ready to upstage the other. Like the BJP has pulled all the stops this time to breach the Azamgarh, an SP bastion, where it lost all 10 seats in 2017 despite winning 325 seats in the state. All top campaigners of the BJP held rallies in the district this time. The SP, in turn, made an audacious foray into Varanasi district where all 8 seats were held by the NDA in 2017, with Akhilesh Yadav drafting Mamata Banerjee in for the campaign.
Two pictures stood out in either camp and may indicate who wins on March 10. One was the Prime Minister’s two-day campaign in Varanasi that seems to have soothed the nerves of many in the BJP camp over the mood in Purvanchal. Many in the BJP were concerned about anti-incumbency against sitting candidates in Varanasi and any loss here would send out a wrong message. But those fears were allayed after PM Modi’s roadshow whose success assured the party leaders that the mood has changed. “People are going to heed PM’s request and vote for us,” a senior BJP leader told News18.
