Modi battles for hearts and minds in India’s holy city

VARANASI (India) — Boat owner Prabhu Sahani backed Mr Narendra Modi in the 2014 general election, but the Indian Prime Minister will not be getting his vote when the ancient city on the Ganges goes to the polls again tomorrow.

“He doesn’t understand Varanasi,” complained Mr Sahani, 34, whose boats ferry tourists and pilgrims along the holy river. “We run the oldest transportation in the city, going back generations, and he didn’t consult us about his plans (to clean up the Ganges and modernise the city).”

Mr Modi’s decision to stand in the sacred Hindu city in Uttar Pradesh rather than his home state of Gujarat in 2014 paid off with an overwhelming victory that he celebrated with a prayer on the banks of the Ganges.

Now his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to consolidate its grip on power by seizing control of India’s most populous state, which stretches from the high-rise outer edge of the national capital in the west to the city on the Ganges where Hindus go for salvation in the east.

It faces stiff competition from the locally ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) where caste, family and religious affiliations run deep.

SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, who is Uttar Pradesh state’s current chief minister, has rejuvenated the party’s image since he toppled his ageing father this year, forging an alliance with the national opposition Congress party and campaigning alongside its equally youthful deputy leader Rahul Gandhi.

Tomorrow’s vote will be the final stage of a bitter weeks-long battle for the state that analysts say is too close to call. It is a key test of Mr Modi nearly three years after he came to office pledging inclusive government and a “shining India” that would provide jobs for a growing youth population.

As voting day approaches in Varanasi, one of the world’s oldest cities, the once putrid banks of the Ganges are certainly shining brighter.

Locals say cleaners now come four times a day to sweep the “ghats” — areas where bodies are brought to be cremated according to centuries-old Hindu tradition.

Modern changing cabins have sprung up along the river, although most stand empty as ritual bathers strip off next to them in the open, just as they have always done.

“You used to see dead bodies of animals and sometimes even people floating in the river. Now that has decreased,” said boatman Suresh Sahani, who plans to vote BJP.

Away from the river, however, there are few signs of the “smart heritage city” that Mr Modi promised.

Work has begun on underground cables to replace the tangle of electricity wires that hang precariously over the city’s narrow streets.

But for now, that only worsens the congestion, forcing honking cars, rickshaws and bicycles into an angry single lane of traffic that is often brought to a standstill by a stray cow.

Varanasi’s BJP Mayor Ram Gopal Mohley blamed the state government for the pace of progress, saying that federal coffers have provided hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the city’s infrastructure.

“They have been creating the hurdles, but not for long. We will form the government on March 11 and things will change,” he told AFP. “Whatever Modi-ji (ji is an Indian honorific) is doing for his constituency is good.”

With all to play for, party leaders flocked to Varanasi over the weekend to rally support. Mr Modi touted his party’s investment in the city and said the weavers of its famous silk had been given “modern facilities”.

But there is little sign of that in the impoverished Muslim neighbourhood where much of the silk is made.

“Water supply is a problem, power supply is a problem, and we have floods every monsoon,” 75-year-old Abdul Azib told AFP. “All the candidates come to this area and say a lot, but nothing happens,” said Mr Azib, who scrapes a meagre living making saris. AFP