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What would be the benefit from this move? Despite being
on the anvil for several months, these two questions hit everyone in the face
the moment the Bharatiya Janata Party made the announcement late Saturday
night. Answers to these questions are actually in two realms: immediate
electoral calculations and the much bigger political and cultural context.
For Modi to secure a mandate that reduces his dependence on other parties to form a government, it is essential for BJP to do spectacularly well in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Anything less than 50% of the 120 seats for the party from here is likely to become an impediment.
Geographically, Varanasi is close to the midway point of the land tract comprising the two states. Eastern UP and the Poorvanchal region of the state jointly account for almost half the seats in UP.
Modi's presence in Varanasi will have significant traction-effect in Bihar and other parts of UP. But, this analysis of number-crunching is superficial and fails to go beyond the predictable realm. Modi visited Varanasi for the first time after being anointed BJP's prime ministerial candidate in December 2013. He did not go directly to the rally venue.
Instead, he visited the Kashi Vishwanath and Sankatmochan Temples prior to this. Both are iconic temples and the former has been one of the three shrines over which the Sangh Parivar waged the agitation in the mid-1980s that is singularly responsible for BJP's rise.
The agitation for the removal of the Gyanvapi Mosque has not been waged after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. But with Modi's candidature from the city, the issue is likely to be become a talking point in the course of the campaign and its immediate aftermath.
Modi has not overtly played the C-card so far like he did in 2002 (refugee camps being babyproducing factories) and has opted to speak in similes (you need chest size 55 inches to convert UP into a Gujarat). But his move to contest from the preeminent Holy city of Hindus that is also mired in historical conflict may introduce a strong undercurrent of polarisation.
In December 2013, in his speech, Modi said he came from the "land of Somnath to take the blessings of Baba Vishwanath". The lines between religion, politics and culture were also not delineated by Modi when he affirmed that cleaning the Ganga River and running the programme efficiently was as much a political commitment as a religious duty.
The river is after all, not just a carrier of flowing water but a cultural stream and an embodiment of the Mother figure for the majority. In the heydays of the Ayodhya agitation, party elders of Modi argued that it was not just for the construction of a temple but for the assertion of cultural nationalism.
Varanasi is culturally referred as Kashi, the place to attain Moksha or liberation. In mythology this liberation is from the cycle of life but in Modi's campaign, emancipation is necessary from a government till recently routinely called Delhi Sultanate with a Shahzade waiting in the wings.
Varanasi is associated more closely with Lord Shiva in comparison to other Gods of the Hindu pantheon, most importantly the other two in the Triumvirate, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma.
With Modi from Varanasi, Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and Arun Jaitley from Amritsar — choices soaked in political, cultural and religious symbolism — the BJP underscored the rise of the new Triumvirate or Trimurti. The common religious chant of the city and Lord Shiva is Har Har Mahadev.
The slogan being used for some time to drum up support for Modi has a striking similarity: Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi. This is clever use of symbols, language, culture and religiosity interwoven into one. Allahabad was Nehru's political home. It is the city of the Sangam, symbolic of India's spiritual pluralism.
Modi's residence will lie on the banks of a singular stream of India's spiritual heritage. There must, after all, be a raison d'etre for choosing this seat from the 80 available in Uttar Pradesh!
(The writer is the biographer of Narendra Modi)
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