New Delhi/Varanasi:
On the final day of the campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held rally in predominantly rural Rohaniya Assembly segment falling under his Lok Sabha constituency.
This is the third consecutive day of electioneering by the Prime Minister in Varanasi.
Prior to his rally, PM Modi visited Gadwaghat Ashram in Ramnagar and later visited former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s ancestral home near Varanasi.
Read | ‘Do or die’ campaign for final phase of UP Polls to end on Monday
Highlights of PM Modi's speech:
#2:30PM: PM Modi concludes his 3-day long campaign in Varanasi with an appeal to vote for BJP. This was his last rally in UP polls campaign, which ends at 5PM.
#It is time to free Uttar Pradesh from misrule of SP, BSP & Congress. It is time to think about welfare of our youth so they prosper: PM
#UP government does not give jobs to honest people: PM
#UP government is cheating youth in name of jobs, they are harrassed for inetrviews: PM
#We want poor households to have access to clean fuel. We aim to provide 5 crore families with LPG connections in 3 years: PM
#Being raised in a poor family, am aware of the hardships they face. We would take every step that uplifts them: PM
#Akhilesh govt only concerned about votebank and not farmers: PM
#UP government is anti-farmer. Why is it that farmers don't benefit from the Fasal Bima Yojana? Why they don't help farmers in distress: PM
#We have coated Urea with neem, ending the blackmarketting of the fertilizer, this has directly benefitted the farmers: PM
#If famers get water, they can plough gold; we are trying to ensure irrigation facilities for farmers: PM
#We have brought the Soil Health Card. We are training our farmers with scientific methods of farming: PM
#For farmers, I have taken important steps to ensure that their income is at least doubled by 2022
#My dream is that poorest of poor families get home by 2022, 75 years of independence
#Inspired by ideals of Gandhi ji & Sardar Patel, we are working for welfare of people of this country
#Fortunate that I was raised on the land where Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel were born
#Paid tribute to Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri ji this morning
#2:00PM: PM Modi begins address
BJP’s history in Rohaniya
Rohaniya houses Jayapur, the first village to be adopted by the PM under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
The assembly segment had come into being after the delimitation of constituencies in 2008.It has stuck out like a sore thumb for the BJP in Varanasi, which is otherwise considered a party stronghold.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Murli Manohar Joshi won the seat for the BJP though the party trailed in Rohaniya behind the candidates of Samajwadi Party, BSP and Apna Dal, one of the reasons why his victory margin remained a slim 18,000 votes.
In the 2012 assembly polls, the BJP finished a distant fourth with its candidate securing a paltry 9.67 per cent of votes and forfeiting his deposit.
Wary of the tricky nature of this assembly segment, the party entered into a tie-up with Apna Dal (AD), just before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.The AD enjoys a following among the Kurmis, who form a major chunk of voters in Varanasi.
AD’s Anupriya Patel was the sitting MLA from the seat and she went on to win from Mirzapur in the Lok Sabha polls riding the Modi wave.
Her party, though lost Rohaniya in the ensuring by-poll as her mother Krishna was defeated by the SP candidate.
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PM Modi’s Battle Varanasi
Since Friday, Modi has addressed as many as three public meetings and taken out two processions in open vehicles.
The Congress has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission that prior permission had not been sought for Friday’s “roadshow”, taken out hours before a similar show of strength by Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav.
The BJP has maintained that these were not “roadshows” but “Jan Sampark yatras” and there was no breach of model code of conduct as the PM merely waved at the cheering crowds, without uttering a word, on his way to a temple on Friday and the venue of his rally on Sunday.
Monday’s rally appears strategically timed and placed as Modi will deliver his speech when less than a quarter of the day will be left before campaign comes to a close at 5 PM.
