In holy city of Varanasi, Modi’s vision fused development, politics, faith

IT was sabbatum, process 14, 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata company (BJP) named and so gujerat chief minister Narendra Modi as its candidate from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The incumbent United Progressive Alliance was in doldrums but the BJP was looking to maximise its haul from the heartland. The sitting MP, Murli Manohar Joshi, who had narrowly won the seat in 2009, was moved to Kanpur, and Modi landed in the holy city on April 24, 2014.In his first election speech, he said, “Na kisi ne mujhe bheja hai, na main yaha aaya hu, mujhe to maa Ganga ne Bulaya hai...aur ek balak jaise apni maa ki god me wapas aata hai waisi main anubhuti kar raha hun...(Nobody has sent me, nor have I come here, Mother Ganga has invited me to Kashi, and how a child feels when he returns to his mother’s lap, I am experiencing the same.)”Modi has since won the parliamentary seat thrice, helped the BJP trounce regional opposition in Uttar Pradesh, and build a new paradigm of Hindutva with Varanasi as a fulcrum. He built infra projects such as the Varanasi city-Airport road, a trade facilitation centre, a perishable cargo centre, a port, underground cabling to make Kashi free from the web of hanging wires, and the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. He also changed the face of the ancient city by leading a revamp of the Ganga aarti ceremony.“Kashi adopted PM Modi and Modi made Kashi his home...” said Shashi Mishra, a local resident.When Modi chose Varanasi alongside Vadodara in Gujarat, it was far from a routine choice. Vadodara was a safe seat from his home state where he had been a popular CM for over a decade and where the BJP’s base was solid. By also contesting from Varanasi, Modi took a political gamble loaded with symbolism and risk, famously declaring, “Maa Ganga ne mujhe bulaya hai” (Mother Ganga has called me).Political experts believe Modi’s decision signalled his intent to project himself not just as a regional satrap from Gujarat, but as a pan-Indian leader deeply rooted in the country’s civilisational ethos. “Varanasi, among the oldest living cities of the world and a centre of Hindu spirituality, gave his candidacy an aura of cultural legitimacy. It was a way of merging Hindutva symbolism with developmental politics,” Shashi Kant Pandey, a political scientist said.Yet, the choice was risky. Varanasi was not a BJP fortress. In 2012 assembly polls, the party’s performance in Varanasi district had been patchy. Even BJP stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi, who shifted to Varanasi in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, had barely scraped through with a margin of 17,000 votes, almost losing to Mukhtar Ansari, a powerful local strongman with a Muslim-Yadav support base.On winning both the seats, Modi chose to retain Varanasi despite the fact that he won the Vadodara seat by a far bigger margin. And in subsequent Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and 2024, he relied solely on Varanasi. “In fact, contesting from Varanasi and then retaining the seat over Vadodara in 2014 was Modi’s calculated decision based on pragmatic politics. Caste combination in eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal) suited the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) more than the BJP which was struggling to strengthen its base in the region,” Pandey said.Modi’s candidature electrified eastern Uttar Pradesh. His road shows drew massive crowds, turning the election into a spectacle. After becoming PM, Modi repeatedly visited his constituency, unveiling ambitious projects — from the Kashi Vishwanath Dham corridor to improved roads, ghats, and the revamped railway and airport infrastructure.According to Shatarudra Prakash, former legislator and resident of Varanasi, the city witnessed unprecedented development after Modi adopted Kashi in 2014. “The development projects helped reshape the city’s identity from a crumbling pilgrimage town to a showcase of Modi’s development model wrapped in cultural pride. Every major event from Varanasi sent a message across Purvanchal and adjoining Bihar that the PM was invested in the region’s future,” he said.Prakash said that Modi’s presence also boosted the BJP’s fortunes across eastern UP, a region where the party had struggled for decades. The 2014 national election saw the BJP and its allies dominate the entire belt, a pattern largely repeated in 2019.Since 2014, Varanasi has seen several large infra projects , including roads, the International Cooperation and Convention Centre, a central command and control centre, Trinetra integrated with CCTV cams installed at intersections, a trade facilitation centre, and two cancer hospitals. Modi has visited his parliamentary constituency Varanasi 52 times. “Did any PM ever visit his parliamentary constituency so many times? asked Vijay Yadav, a resident.Rajendra Kumar Gupta, a local entrepreneur, said, “Cleanliness has improved tremendously. The roads have been repaired, encroachment was removed to the level it was possible. The ring road project was completed. It has reduced traffic pressure on the city.”In all, projects worth over ₹52,000 crore were launched in Varanasi over the past 11 years. The city also witnessed the visits of six foreign dignitaries. Modi accompanied the then Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to Kashi in 2015, when the two dignitaries attended Ganga Arti at Dashashwamedh Ghat. Then, he accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018.That year, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Varanasi and interacted with students. In 2019, then Mauritius PM Anerood Jugnauth visited Varanasi and attended the Pravasi Bharatiya Sammelan. Then Sri Lanka PM Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the city in 2020. On September 10 this year, Mauritius PM Navin Ramgoolam visited Kashi.