On February 10, SP Singh was so thrilled with the outcome of the elections in faraway Delhi, he began to distribute sweets to everyone who visited his magazine shop near Varanasi railway station. Four day later, the enthusiastic Aam Aadmi Party supporter hadn't stopped handing them out. For many like him, Arvind Kejriwal had finally got back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi who defeated the AAP leader in this constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha electins.
Sweets will continue to be distributed in the city until at least Saturday afternoon, when AAP activists will set out processions from various parts of the district, said Girsant, the Varanasi co-ordinator of the MNREGA Mazdoor Union and a prominent AAP activist. “These processions will culminate at Shastri Ghat in the heart of the city around 2 pm," he said. Cultural groups will perform the celebration is likely to continue till evening.
Singh, the owner of the magazine stand, said that he would participate in the processions. Until recently, he was a hardcore supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party. “But when I learnt about Aam Adami Party, my loyalty to the BJP dissolved and I realised that Kejariwal thinks in the same manner as I think,” Singh explained.
During last year's Lok Sabha election, Varanasi was filled with activity by the supporters of both Modi and Kejariwal. In course of time, though the ideological divisions disappeared, the AAP leader continued to remain a figure of fun. The poll outcome in Delhi has completely reversed this.
“There are many people cracking many jokes about Modi,” said Amit Kumar, a local businessman. “That is in the nature of this city where politics always matters, but it becomes a form of entertainment the moment election ends.”
Interestingly, if the AAP supporters are thrilled, the BJP men are not completely dejected. “Not all BJP leaders in Varanasi, as in many other parts of north India, consider defeat in Delhi as a real setback,” said a local journalist, AK Rai. “In private conversations they will tell you how they consider the AAP’s victory in Delhi as an act of divine intervention which may end the single command structure that the BJP has acquired under [party president] Amit Shah and Narendra Modi."
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Sweets will continue to be distributed in the city until at least Saturday afternoon, when AAP activists will set out processions from various parts of the district, said Girsant, the Varanasi co-ordinator of the MNREGA Mazdoor Union and a prominent AAP activist. “These processions will culminate at Shastri Ghat in the heart of the city around 2 pm," he said. Cultural groups will perform the celebration is likely to continue till evening.
Singh, the owner of the magazine stand, said that he would participate in the processions. Until recently, he was a hardcore supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party. “But when I learnt about Aam Adami Party, my loyalty to the BJP dissolved and I realised that Kejariwal thinks in the same manner as I think,” Singh explained.
During last year's Lok Sabha election, Varanasi was filled with activity by the supporters of both Modi and Kejariwal. In course of time, though the ideological divisions disappeared, the AAP leader continued to remain a figure of fun. The poll outcome in Delhi has completely reversed this.
“There are many people cracking many jokes about Modi,” said Amit Kumar, a local businessman. “That is in the nature of this city where politics always matters, but it becomes a form of entertainment the moment election ends.”
Interestingly, if the AAP supporters are thrilled, the BJP men are not completely dejected. “Not all BJP leaders in Varanasi, as in many other parts of north India, consider defeat in Delhi as a real setback,” said a local journalist, AK Rai. “In private conversations they will tell you how they consider the AAP’s victory in Delhi as an act of divine intervention which may end the single command structure that the BJP has acquired under [party president] Amit Shah and Narendra Modi."