Why is Modi keen to contest from Varanasi?

Behind BJP’s prime ministerial nominee and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on development lies his hardcore Hindutva appeal.

When Modi began to harp on good governance and development during his barnstorming campaign as the BJP’s prime ministerial nominee, he also started off the misplaced debate whether he had given up on his Hindutva plank.

That debate has fizzled off with the saffron strongman eyeing the Varanasi seat which his senior colleague Murli Manohar Joshi, despite his unwillingness, may have to give up at the behest of the RSS and party chief Rajnath Singh.

While it remains to be seen whether Modi finally gets to contest from Varanasi, there is little doubt that his candidature from that seat would give a huge boost to Hindutva—a fact that the RSS and the hardcore BJP realize and want. It is also likely to polarize the elections in the state which has 80 parliamentary seats and on which the BJP has pinned its hopes for a victory.

During the BJP’s high pitched campaign for a Ram temple at the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathur were also high on the agenda of the Hindutva forces. The shrill slogan of “Kasam Ram ki khate hain, mandir vahin banayenge (We vow in Lord Ram’s name that we will build the temple there) was accompanied with the battle-cry of “Yeh to sirf jhanki hai, Mathura Kashi baki hai’’ (this is only a prelude, Mathur and Kashi still remain).

Modi and his stormtroopers do not need to raise that slogan anymore. They had established their Hindutva credentials in 2002 in the backdrop of the Gujarat riots so much so that Modi and Hindutva are often seen as synonymous.

And when he entered the national arena as the party’s PM nominee and began to speak about transforming the country by focusing on development and good governance, he did not need to talk about Hindutva. In his case, it was taken as given. It is this which allowed him to get away with remarks like “pehle sauchalaya, phir devalaya” (first toilets, then temples) unlike L K Advani, party patriarch and architect of the Ayodhya movement, who lost out his position as Hindutva’s poster boy by hailing M. A. Jinnah as secular.

Indeed, Advani’s opposition to Modi’s national projection also stemmed from the fact that the association of the Gujarat leader’s name with hardline Hindutva would prevent the party from attracting allies—and thereby compromise not only the BJP’s mission of 272 plus but also the party’s chances of coming anywhere close to power at the Centre. But the pressure from the cadres, the desire for the people for a dynamic, strong and active leader has allowed Modi to go a rampaging campaign to fill the vacuum created by the failure of the Congress-UPA government of Manmohan Singh.

Ripple effect

Besides the unstated reason of giving a fillip to Hindutva without actually harping on it, Modi’s candidature from Varanasi is also expected to pay additional dividends, according to assessments made by a section in the party.

Indeed, Varanasi is expected to have an impact across UP, and more specially on the 20 seats that lie in the eastern part of the state, besides influencing the voters in neighbouring Bihar which has 40 parliamentary seats and Jharkhand which contributes 14 seats to the Lok Sabha. Overall, Modi’s candidature in UP would sent out a strong signal to the Hindi heartland from where the BJP hopes to pick up the maximum number of seats.

As Varanasi is the spiritual seat of Hinduism, Modi’s candidature is likely to galvanise the saffron cadres and supporters and help the BJP consolidate the upper caste vote. But the seat also has a sizeable population of muslims and other castes. The mullahs or boatmen who belong to the nishad caste had been a big part of Advani’s rath yatra and post-demolition of the BJP.

The community crossed over to the Samajwadi Party when Phoolan Devi joined Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party. Modi’s OBC background is expected to help the BJP win this section over.

Given the caste configuration of the parliamentary seat, the challenge for Modi will be to woo the dalits who comprise about 14 percent of the population.

Varanasi and UP are critical in the BJP’s scheme of things. The saffron party, which currently has only 10 of the 80 seats in the state, had put in a stupendous performance in 1996 and 1998 by winning 52 seats (of a total of 165) and 57 seats (of a total of 179) respectively, each time going on to form a government even if the first lasted for 13 days and the second for 13 months.

In 1999-2004, when the BJP-led NDA under Vajpayee had a full term, the party had won 29 seats in UP.

It is therefore not surprising that Modi sees Varanasi as crucial in his run to South Bloc or the party sees UP as the key that would unlock the gates of power for it in Delhi.

Saroj Nagi can be contacted at nagisaroj@gmail.com

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