University-educated legislative council voters in Varanasi and its neighbourhood have defeated BJP candidates a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his constituency a visit.
The Samajwadi Party has wrested from the BJP both council seats up for grabs from Varanasi — voted on exclusively by teachers and graduates —in the December 1 elections, results announced on Saturday show.
Modi had toured Varanasi city and nearby Sarnath on November 30, courting various castes and communities by praying at the Kashi Vishwanath temple and invoking the Ganga, Guru Nanak, Gautam Buddha and Dalit guru Sant Ravidas.
At his two public meetings he had defended the new farm bills, accused the Opposition of misleading and instigating the protesting farmers, and asked the crowds whether they were happy with his performance. The BJP-invited audiences had clapped enthusiastically.
But the voters of the Varanasi graduates’ constituency and Varanasi teachers’ constituency — representing the intelligentsia of Varanasi and seven neighbouring districts — appear to have been unimpressed.
The state’s MLAs elect 38 of the council’s 100 members while the local bodies elect 36. Eight teachers’ constituencies and eight graduates’ constituencies together elect 16 members while the remaining 10 are nominated by the governor.
Overall, the BJP gained 3 seats in the December 1 elections, winning 6 of the 11 seats decided, while the Samajwadis won 3, a gain of 1 seat. Independents won the remaining 2. The Samajwadis now hold 53 council seats, with the BJP second at 22.
Ashutosh Sinha defeated the BJP’s Kedarnath Singh by 3,850 votes from the Varanasi graduates’ constituency. Lal Bihari Yadav defeated Independent candidate Pramod Kumar Mishra by 936 votes from the teachers’ constituency, pushing the BJP’s Chet Narayan Singh to third. Kedarnath and Chet Narayan had won the last three elections.
State BJP politicians dismissed suggestions that Modi was losing his appeal, at least among those with higher education, saying legislative council polls were not a measure of a Prime Minister’s popularity.
Modi had during his Varanasi visit taken a cruise on the Ganga and lit earthen lamps at Rajghat to kick off the Dev Deepavali celebrations, held every Kartik Purnima.
He later visited Sant Ravidas Ghat and garlanded the poet-saint’s statue. He paid homage to Guru Nanak on his birth anniversary, and visited the Buddhist pilgrimage site of Sarnath to watch a light-and-sound show on the Buddha’s life.
Losing BJP candidate Chet Narayan said: “We are reviewing the results before reaching a conclusion on the reasons for the defeats.”
