Facts you didn’t know about UP civic polls: Modi lost in ‘mini-PMO’ ward

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have deployed 15 urban poll winners (14 mayors and a chairperson of Amethi Nagar Panchayat) of Uttar Pradesh in Gujarat elections to boost to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state but there was a news from Varanasi he would dislike to hear. In UP civic polls, the BJP lost to the Congress in Bhadaini ward , where Modi’s office, popularly known as mini-PMO, is located in his parliamentary constituency.

“I am sure Modi doesn’t know that he is a looser in his own area”, says Meenu Sharma of the Congress. She got 2665 votes and defeated the BJP’s Poonam Pandey by 1595 votes.

“Besides Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a dozen central ministers, more than 20 ministers of UP had campaigned here because the mini-PMO located in Ravindrapuri area falls under Bhadaini. But the people rejected the PM here because he lacks genuineness”, said Sharma.

“Bhadaini is arguably the most ancient locality of Kashi. Assi Ghat, which is the confluence of the Ganga, the Vauna and the Assi is located here. Most of the popular tea stalls of Varanasi, where people traditionally gather every morning and evening for political discussions, are located near Assi Ghat. The people of Gujarat should know that Modi is a loser in his own locality”, she added.

In 2012, Govind Sharma, a Congress leader had defeated the BJP in Bhadaini by 600 votes.

“Modi has ignored the boatmen (mallah) and pandas, who are two most important communities of Kashi (Varanasi). He is a superficial man. The PM distributed e-boats to mallahs last year but didn’t realise that they needed a place near the ghats to recharge their batteries. So majority of the e-boats are parked in a corner and the mallahs are back to their traditional wooden boats”, said Govind.

The Congress leader claimed that even media tried to suppress the information about “defeat of the PM in Bhadaini”.

“The media reported hesitantly that the BJP lost to Nadira Khatun, an independent candidate in Purana Gorakhpur ward, where Gorakhnath temple is located which is headed by Yogi Adityanath”, he said adding that people also read about the BJP’s defeat in Kaushambi’s Sirathu Nagar Panchayat, which happens to be deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya’s hometown.

Rajendra Singh, an independent got 3783 votes and won on Sirathu Nagar Panchayat chairman’s post against the BJP, which got 2143 votes. Nadira had got 1783 votes against the BJP’s 1321 votes in the civic polls held in November end.