Varanasi Lok Sabha seat
Varanasi is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It is also known as ‘Banaras’ and ‘Kashi’. The holy city of Kashi has an unbreakable relationship with Baba Vishwanath Temple and river Ganga. This city has been the cultural and religious center of India since ancient times. Along with the historical-cultural importance of Varanasi, the political background is also quite interesting. Varanasi Lok Sabha seat came into existence for the first time in the general elections of 1957 and due to the bumper victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from this seat twice, the importance of this seat has become more special.
When the first general elections were held in the year 1951-52, there were three Lok Sabha seats in Varanasi district namely Banaras East, Banaras West and Banaras Central. After this, in the first general elections held for the Varanasi seat in 1957, Raghunath Singh, who contested on behalf of the Congress, defeated the independent candidate Shivmangal Ram by 71,926 votes and this seat went to the Congress. Then when Lok Sabha elections were held in 1962, this seat again remained in the account of Raghunath Singh of Congress. This time he defeated Jan Sangh candidate Raghuveer by 45,907 votes.
Varanasi was sometimes the winning seat of Congress and sometimes of BJP.
For the first time in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, SN Singh of the Communist Party of India defeated Raghunath Singh of the Congress by 18,167 votes on the Varanasi seat. Again in the 1971 elections, Raja Ram Shastri of Congress defeated Kamla Prasad Singh of Bharatiya Jan Sangh by 52,941 votes and this seat again came into the hands of Congress. When Emergency was imposed in the country after 1971 and then elections were held in the year 1977, Congress had to face a severe defeat on this seat and Raja Ram of Congress was defeated by Chandrashekhar of Bharatiya Lok Dal by 1,71,854 votes.
In the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, Congress again made a comeback by winning the Varanasi seat and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kamalapati Tripathi led the party to victory on this seat. He defeated Janata Party (Secular) candidate Raj Narayan by 24,735 votes. Even in 1984, this seat remained with Congress and Shyam Lal Yadav defeated Communist Party of India candidate Udal by 94,430 votes.
In the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, this seat went from the hands of Congress to Anil Shastri of Janata Dal. BJP won the Varanasi seat for the first time in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, when Shish Chandra Dixit defeated CPI(M)’s Raj Kishore and since then this seat remained in the BJP’s account. After 1991, in 1996, BJP’s Shankar Prasad Jaiswal won this seat. Jaiswal defeated CPI(M)’s Rajkishore by 1,00,692 votes.
Varanasi seat had become VVIP
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Congress returned to Varanasi Lok Sabha seat after 15 years and Rajesh Kumar Mishra won by defeating BJP’s Shankar Prasad Jaiswal. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Varanasi seat became one of the VVIP seats of the country, when BSP’s strongman Mukhtar Ansari was in the fray against former BJP national president and former Union Minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi. In this election, Murli Manohar Joshi defeated Mukhtar Ansari.
Kashi was lucky for Narendra Modi
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP fielded Narendra Modi, who was already the Chief Minister of Gujarat, on this seat and also declared him the face of the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi was already contesting elections from his traditional seat Vadodara and now he also contested elections from Varanasi. On this seat, Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal and Congress had given ticket to Ajay Rai against Narendra Modi. In this fierce battle, Varanasi Lok Sabha seat became the most talked about seat in the country. This time Narendra Modi registered his bumper victory on this seat while Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stood second.
After winning the Varanasi seat, Narendra Modi reached the Parliament and also became the Prime Minister of the country. Along with Varanasi, Narendra Modi also won the Vadodara seat but he chose Varanasi only for representation.
PM Modi registered a big victory for the second time
Then came the turn of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where BJP once again fielded Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi seat. This time, Ajay Rai of Congress and Shalini Yadav of Samajwadi Party were contesting against him. On this seat, the public re-elected PM Modi and Shalini Yadav lost the election by a huge margin. Narendra Modi got 6,74,664 votes in 2019, SP’s Shalini Yadal got 1,95,159 votes and Congress candidate Ajay Rai got 1,52,548 votes.
After winning from Varanasi, Narendra Modi once again reached the Parliament and BJP formed the government at the Center with full majority for the second consecutive time in the general elections. Narendra Modi took oath as PM for the second time. Now, this time in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, what will be the electoral equation on Varanasi seat and whether BJP will field Narendra Modi from here for the third time, it remains to be seen. There will be an interesting contest on this seat this time too.
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