Uttar Pradesh assembly polls 2022: Ruling BJP, opposition parties gear up for political activities in Varanasi for last leg of UP elections

Lucknow: With polling day approaching Varanasi is becoming the hub of political activities in east Uttar Pradesh. In the last leg of UP elections polling would be held in Varanasi and adjoining districts of Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Gazipur and Sonbhadra on coming Monday.

While Prime Minister Modi would spend three days in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi from Thursday for extensive campaigning, the opposition too have planned mega rallies and big shows. On Thursday the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its alliance partners have decided to hold their biggest rally in Varanasi with Bengal Chief Mamta Banerjee being the showstopper of the campaign. Mamta arrived in Varanasi on Wednesday and attended the evening Aarti (Prayer) at Dashaswamedh Ghat on the banks of river Ganga. The Bengal CM would meet a delegation of Bengali community during her visit to Varanasi. The SP alliance rally would be jointly addressed by party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Mamta. The mega rally of opposition in Varanasi would coincide with the voting of sixth phase on 57 seats of 10 districts on Thursday.

Meanwhile congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi too would hold rally and road show in Varanasi on Thursday. Priyanka would also do door to door campaigning at Pindra assembly segment of Varanasi on the same day. The congress leader would be covering five assembly segments in Varanasi through her road show.

According to SP leader in Varanasi, the party rally would have a battery of top leaders of alliance including Om Prakash Rajbhar of Suheldeo Rajbhar Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBP), Krishna Patel of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) , Swami Prasad Maurya and Sanjay Chauhan of Janwadi Kranti Party (JKP). The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) spokesperson, Anil Dubey said that party Chief Jayant Chaudhury would also be present during the opposition rally at Varanasi. This would be the

first time Jayant is addressing a rally outside west UP. Besides all these big leaders, cine star Jaya Bachchan too is likely to address the opposition rally in Varanasi.