Exuding confidence in poll victory, Uttar Pradesh Minister Neelkanth Tiwari on Monday said that the people of Kashi share a special bond with Prime Minister Narendra Modi under whose leadership several developmental works have taken place in the city, including the redevelopment of the Vishwanath Dham (temple complex).
Polling for the last phase of the Assembly elections is underway in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Kashi Vishwanath corridor is in the Varanasi South Assembly constituency, from where the BJP has fielded sitting MLA Neelkanth Tiwari against Samajwadi Party's Kishan Dixit, who is a Mahant at the local Mahamritunjay temple.
Speaking toafter casting his vote, Tiwari said, "There is no fierce battle between the SP and the BJP on the Varanasi South seat. The Opposition has tried all tactics. They have tried the SP-BSP alliance and the Congress-SP alliance in the past. They also fielded a big leader from here, who has been a three-time MP."
He said that the people here shared a "special bond" with the Prime Minister. Notably, Varanasi is the Prime Minister's Parliamentary constituency.
"With inspiration and guidance from the Prime Minister, several developmental works have been done here including the Vishwanath Dham, beautification of streets among other things. Everyone from Kashi will vote for the BJP today," the minister said.
He also urged the voters to exercise their franchise and record a 100 per cent voting turnout.
He said, "All the people of the state are with the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) for the work done by them."
Tiwari also said that there is a high voter turnout here, implying that people want to vote for the BJP.
"Recently, Yogi had said that the BJP will secure victory over 325 seats. In my opinion, the BJP will get more seats than it did last time (in the 2017 Assembly polls). There is a lot of enthusiasm. The BJP in each Vidhan Sabha is hoping to triple the margin of victory since the last elections," he said.
An average voter turnout of 21.55 per cent was recorded till 11 am in the last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on Monday.
A total of 613 candidates are in the electoral fray for 54 constituencies across nine districts of Mau, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, and Bhadohi (Sant Ravidas Nagar).
Voting for the last phase of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh elections began at 7 am today and will continue till 6 pm.
The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
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