All you need to know about 'Varanasi' seat from where PM Modi is contesting LS polls

Before PM Modi, veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi was an MP from Varanasi, who swept the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi seat by bagging 203122 votes, defeating BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari, who bagged 185911 votes and SP’s Ajay Rai who attained 123826 votes.

Narendra Modi (Source: PTI)

Uttar Pradesh: Stage is set for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mega road show in Varanasi on Thursday. Varanasi becomes a very important seat as it is also PM Modi’s parliamentary constituency, and once again he is set to contest the polls from here. Though Congress on Thursday cleared the picture over the speculations that Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be battling against the Prime Minister, by fielding Ajay Rai from the seat. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Shalini Yadav. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept the polls on BJP ticket with 5,81,022 votes; whereas Aam Aadmi Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal contested against him and bagged second highest 2,09,238 votes. Congress gave its ticket to Ajay Rai, who got defeated with 75,614 votes; Whereas, BSP candidate was able to bag only 60,579 votes. Total 42 candidates contested from this constituency. In 2014, at the time of the previous Lok Sabha elections, Varanasi had 1,767,486 registered electors, of which 986,224 were male and 781,262 were female. The constituency witnessed a 58.31% voter turnout, where the percentage of male voter turnout was 60.26% and 55.86% female voters turned out for voting. Before PM Modi, veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi was an MP from Varanasi, who swept the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi seat by bagging 203122 votes, defeating BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari, who bagged 185911 votes and SP’s Ajay Rai who attained 123826 votes.