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R Swaminathan in Varanasi
Sewer, road tax, bijli [electricity] and nai Kashi are some of the issues you keep hearing in the cacophony of allegations and counter-allegations in Varanasi these days.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is feeling the pinch, as it is being seen as responsible for scuttling the proposal for the sewerage system that would have cleaned the Varna river and modernised the antiquated drainage system. And infighting in the local unit has not helped the BJP's cause.
With the Loktantrik Congress Party parting ways with the BJP for its refusal to give the LCP nominee a ticket from Chirai village, and the inroads made by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which have fielded upper-caste candidates, BJP's chances have further dimmed.
Virendra Singh, a transport minister in the Rajnath Singh government and an LCP candidate from Chirai village, is miffed at not being given the ticket by the BJP.
Virendra attacks the BJP in every election meeting that he attends and urges the Thakur voters to boot out the "kamal ka phool".
Munna Singh, Virendra's brother, said the mantriji had done a lot for the constituency and was instrumental in chalking out plans for the sewerage system.
He alleged that the chief minister scuttled the deal when he got to know that Virendra was eating into his Thakur vote bank.
However, the BJP candidate from the constituency pooh-poohed the allegations and said that Virendra Singh was giving away the contract for the sewerage system at "double the price" to his crony.
He said the BJP decided not to give the ticket to Virendra because he was corrupt, and added that the LCP candidate had increased the road tax in Varanasi from Rs 800 to Rs 2,500 per annum during his tenure.
Virendra, however, washed his hands off the issue. "Main tho sirf rajya mantri tha. Mere se bhi upar aur mantri the. Rajnath Singh tho chief minister hain," he said.
Taxi driver Ashok Kumar Tripathi said, "Varanasi is a tourist town and a lot of foreigners come here. Now, with the Afghanistan war and the Pearl kidnapping, the tourist inflow has decreased. On top of it the government has the gall to increase the road tax!"
Asked whether the Ram temple issue would decide the winner here, he said, "People just care for two meals a day. They are least bothered if the temple comes up."
Muddying the already volatile political battle is the entry of Banarasi Kinnar, an eunuch candidate, who openly exhorts the electorate to vote for the "real hijra" and not the "fake hijra".
Harish Chandra Srivastava, the finance minister in the Rajnath Singh government and a BJP candidate from the Varanasi cantonment constituency, is also facing a tough fight from Abhishek 'Guddu' Yadav of the BSP and Manoj Rai 'Pappu' of the SP.
Saurabh Srivastava, his son, alleged that the BSP was "criminalising" the "holy land of Varanasi". He said Guddu Yadav was a close associate of local don Munna Banjara, who he said had threatened to kill his father.
He claimed that the BSP was helping his father's case by fielding a Yadav candidate, who would eat into SP's vote bank. However, Guddu Yadav dismissed all allegations and said that a jittery BJP was resorting to "cheap tactics".
Guddu Yadav said, "Harishji is old. All the youth are with me as I am young and dynamic. This is making the BJP weak at its knees and it is resorting to allegations to sway the voters."
The BJP is also concerned by the strategy of the BSP to field upper-caste candidates in Kolasla and Gangapur.
On top of it, Varanasi South, a Muslim dominated SP stronghold, has fielded sitting MLA Abdul Kalam, who does not seem to face any competition.
Kalam said, "What competition? I have done a lot for the people and they know. They also know that the BJP is victimising the Muslims by POTO and [the ban] on SIMI. The Congress has never been strong here. So I don't face any competition."
A senior local BJP leader at Srivastava's house said that the inroads made by Dr Avdesh Singh [the BSP candidate from Kolasla, a Thakur], and Ajai Pratap Singh [the BSP candidate from Gangapur, a Thakur] into the Thakur and Brahmin vote bank had prompted the local unit to SOS Delhi.
He said Delhi had responded by planning to send Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj on February 18 and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on February 19 for campaigning.
If the crestfallen faces at the BJP camp and the desperate measures initiated by Delhi are anything to go by, then the party is in for a tough time at battleground Varanasi.
