Prestige battle: BJP top guns stay put in Varanasi

The BJP is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to reclaim Uttar Pradesh. Eight members of the Modi cabinet are camping in Varanasi to "secure" victory of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally candidates from all the five assembly seats of the Parliamentary seat which is represented by the Prime Minister.

Besides PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Health Minister JP Nadda, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad, Social Justice Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot are camping in Varanasi as winning all five assembly seats has become a matter of prestige for the party.

Apart from Cabinet ministers, Ministers of State, including some MoS with independent charge have been deployed to secure victory of all candidates.

The Ministers of State include Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, Finance Minister Santosh Gangwar, MoS Rural Development Ram Kripal Yadav.

Important ministerial meetings, which were scheduled in March first week, have been rescheduled due to their unavailability.

Under Varanasi parliamentary seat, there are five assembly constituencies such as Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt and Sevapuri. According to party insiders, the BJP is facing huge infighting from its party cadres and that's why all key cabinet ministers have been "directed" to stay put in Varanasi to control the damage.

The Sevapuri assembly seat is the most important seat that BJP would not like to lose as the constituency got famous for having Jayapur, a model village adopted by Modi under Sansad Gram Yojna. To conquer this key seat, BJP has fielded Apna Dal's candidate from here. Another important seat is Rohaniya, where BJP has locked its horns with its ally partner Apna Dal over seat sharing.