As elections in Uttar Pradesh draw to a close and the focus gets centred on Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which goes to polls in the last phase on March eight, the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance has launched an aggressive campaign called Dard-E-Banaras, which talks about the allegedly unkept promises of the prime minister.
The campaign claims that while Varanasi is a high profile constituency on account of having sent Modi to the Lok Sabha, it has hardly seen any development. As part of the campaign, testimonials of residents of the constituency have been collected in which they talk about the issues plaguing them and how having elected a PM has not brought any change in the area.
The testimonials are being played out in Varanasi by 'campaign raths' or video vans, which are plying all across the VIP constituency. The campaign, according to those crafting the alliance's election strategy, has been designed by students from the Banaras Hindu University and the Indian Institute of Technology, who, as per them, are witnesses to the lack of development in the PM's constituency and came together to highlight their plight.
The videos are being circulated heavily through social media, especially across geographically targeted WhatsApp groups in Varanasi and surrounding areas. So far, the reach of the two minute videos has been about two lakh Facebook and WhatsApp users in and around Varanasi.
The name of the campaign is inspired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi's road show in Varanasi in August, 2016, which had seen a huge turnout. The roadshow, which signalled the start of Congress' election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, was titled Dard-E-Banaras. Sonia had fallen ill during the roadshow and had to be hospitalised upon her return to Delhi.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi are scheduled to hold a joint road show in Varanasi on March 4.
