AMN / Nirendra Dev / VARANASI
Senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi today filed his nomination from Varanasi constituency. Polling will be held in Varanasi in the seventh and final phase of general elections and today is the last day of filing nominations for this phase.
The Prime Minister first took a dip in the holy Ganga and then after getting the blessings of Kaal Bhairav the Kotwal of Kashi, proceeded for the nomination process. Leaders of alliance partners like Chandra Babu Naidu, Eknath Shinde, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Sanjay Nishad, Ramdas Athawale along with BJP national president JP nadda and senior party leaders including Rajnath Singh and Hardeep Singh Puri were also present on the occasion. The four proposers of Mr. Modi included Pandit Ganeshwar Shashtri, Baijnath Patel, Lalchand Kushwaha and Sanjay Sonkar.
Congress candidate Ajay Rai, who is the Opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc joint nominee is contesting against Mr. Modi. The UP Congress chief, Mr. Rai was also fielded by the Congress against Mr. Modi in Varanasi in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but he had finished third both times. In the 2019 polls, PM Modi had defeated the Samajwadi Party’s Shalini Yadav by over 4.79 lakh votes.
Varanasi is the spiritual capital of Hinduism, where devotees from around India and even from outside often come to cremate deceased loved ones by the Ganges river, and Narendra Modi has represented the city since sweeping to power a decade ago in 2014 polls.
Then he had said, “Mujhe Maa Ganga ne bulaya hae (It appears, I am here because mother Ganges had called me)” — in 2014.
Nothing much has changed. “I swear on God… I will have faith and allegiance to India’s constitution,” the Prime Minister read out the mandatory clauses before handing over the paperwork to an election officer. Modi was flanked on the occasion by a bearded Hindu mystic dressed in a loincloth.
Cheering crowds greeted Namo on Tuesday, May 14 as he submitted his candidacy for a Hindu holy city’s parliamentary seat in a general election his party is strongly favoured to win.
Modi waved to the gathered crowd after emerging from the office before leaving with his entourage, made up of senior figures from his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The 73-year-old Modi, who has made acts of religious devotion a fixture of his premiership, had spent the morning visiting temples and offering prayers at the banks of the Ganges.