In Varanasi, BJP up against its own too: 3 rebels and a sulking veteran

THE BJP will be up against some of its own in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha seat of the Prime Minister, where five assembly constituencies will vote in the seventh and the last phase of the elections on March 8.

Denied tickets, at least three of its leaders are contesting against the official party candidates while some are refusing to campaign, upset that “eligible” persons have not been fielded.

Eight seats figure in Varanasi district. Of these, five are assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency — Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantonment, Sevapuri and Rohaniya. Pindra, Shivpur and Ajagara (reserved) are the other three constituencies in the district.

The BJP has sitting MLAS in three — Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantonment. But veteran Shyamdev Roy Chaudhary, who represented Varanasi South seven consecutive terms, has been denied a ticket this time. The party has handed it to a newcomer, Neelkanth Tiwari.

Chaudhary refuses to campaign for Tiwari and spends time at home. Local BJP leaders who have tried to persuade him have given up. Because he has only one question: “Why was I replaced? Only give me this answer.” State BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya too met Chaudhary at his home to try and pacify him.

Party sources said Chaudhary has been assured he will be made an MLC later. On Monday, local party leaders managed to bring him to the inauguration of Tiwari’s election office. But he did not utter a word and left.

BJP Varanasi Mahanagar president Pradeep Agrahari said: “Shyamdev dada is no longer against the party decision. He was present at the inauguration of the election office of Neelkanth Tiwari. But he has given no assurance that he will campaign for Tiwari.”

In Varanasi North, two BJP rebels have entered the fray as independents against sitting MLA and party candidate Ravindra Jaiswal whose main rivals are Abdul Samad Ansari of Congress and Sujeet Kumar Maurya of BSP.

One of the rebels is BJP Kisan Morcha state general secretary Sujeet Singh ‘Tika’. He said he was in the contest to protest the party decision of handing the ticket to an “outsider”.

“Jaiswal is from the Varanasi Cantonment Assembly segment. He is an outsider in Varanasi North. I had opposed his candidature in 2012 too. Even then, I had filed the nomination papers as an independent. But I withdrew my candidature once I was assured that the 2017 ticket would come to me. That promise has not been kept,” Tika said.

He said senior BJP leaders had asked him to step down but he refused. “When there are more than 50,000 workers and around 500 active members of BJP in Varanasi North constituency, then there is no need to field an outsider. My fight is also for the honour of these dedicated party workers,” Tika said.

Another BJP rebel in Varanasi North is Dr Ashok Kumar, a medical practitioner who runs a hospital. Kumar said he left the BJP a week ago because “the party has deviated from its ideology and has started functioning like other political parties”.

“I had demanded a BJP ticket from my home town in Ghazipur district but I was denied that,” Kumar said. He said he decided on Varanasi North because his hospital is nearby.

Asked about the rebels, Agrahari said: “These rebel candidates will not affect the elections.” He said the party has not taken any action so far against these leaders.

In Sevapuri, the BJP has allowed Apna Dal (Sonelal) led by central minister Anupriya Patel to field its candidate. But senior BJP leader Vibhuti Narayan Singh filed his nomination papers for the seat as an independent candidate, backed by the other faction of Apna Dal which is headed by Anupriya’s mother Krishna Patel.

The Sevapuri constituency has a sizeable number of Patel (Kurmi) and Bhumihar votes. Samajwadi Party’s Surendra Singh Patel, elected MLA in 2012 and a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government, is in the fray again. So are several OBC candidates. Vibhuti Narayan is a Bhumihar and that is a headache for the BJP-APNA Dal combine which fears he will cut into votes of their candidate Neel Ratan Patel — the Apna Dal nominee was defeated in the 2012 polls.

Vibhuti Narayan said his association with the BJP goes back 32 years. And he has in the past been BJP state general secretary, state executive member and Kashi region president. Until December, he was in-charge of the Jaunpur district BJP.

“I had asked for a ticket in 2012 too but it was turned down. My supporters forced me this time to contest as an independent after the party again denied me the ticket,” Vibhuti Narayan said.