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| Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi to stand in holy city of Varanasi | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Narendra Modi, the main opposition candidate in next month's Indian elections has emphasised his Hindu nationalist credentials by announcing he will stand in the revered holy city of Varanasi. | |
| Analysts said the decision was a deliberate move to stress to voters his commitment to a faith-based vision of India's national identity. | |
| So far, Modi has campaigned on a largely economic platform and the decision could indicate a desire to give his campaign a more religious tone in the coming weeks. | So far, Modi has campaigned on a largely economic platform and the decision could indicate a desire to give his campaign a more religious tone in the coming weeks. |
| Anant Kumar, a spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), announced the decision on Saturday evening. Varanasi, which lies on the river Ganges, is one of the most sacred sites in India for Hindus and a favourite tourist destination. | |
| The decision may also be based on simple tactical calculations. Varanasi, also known as Benares, is in the country's biggest and most electorally important state, Uttar Pradesh, where local parties have dominated politics in recent years but where the BJP hopes to make a breakthrough in the forthcoming polls. | |
| "Grateful to the party for giving me opportunity to contest the election from the holy city of Benares!," Modi tweeted in reaction to the announcement. | |
| The BJP's president, Rajnath Singh, will contest the high-profile seat of Lucknow, the state's capital. | |
| In recent months, Modi has played down religious imagery or language in the campaign and has concentrated on convincing voters that he is an effective administrator who can reinvogorate India's flagging economy and fulfil the increasingly frustrated aspirations of young people. | |
| Modi came from humble origins to win power in the western state of Gujarat before being projected on to the national stage. Critics see him as an extremist who, when chief minister in 2002, allowed or even encouraged mobs to attack Muslims in towns across Gujarat after a lethal fire supposedly started by Muslims on a train full of Hindu pilgrims. Though Modi denies the charge and investigators cleared him of any direct involvement in the violence, his reputation still concerns many, particularly among India's large Muslim population. | |
| Others, including some of the most powerful industrialists in India, say Modi is an honest and decisive administrator who has introduced policies that have boosted development in his state and that could be effectively reproduced if he were prime minister. | Others, including some of the most powerful industrialists in India, say Modi is an honest and decisive administrator who has introduced policies that have boosted development in his state and that could be effectively reproduced if he were prime minister. |
| Neeraja Chowdhury, a journalist and political analyst, said Modi hoped to galvanise his party's prospects in the sprawling states of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Bihar, which together account for 120 of the 543 elected seats in the powerful lower house of parliament. Without a strong performance in these two states it will be much harder for the BJP to form a government in May. | |
| Modi's main rival in the elections is Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old vice-president of the ruling Congress party and scion of the Gandhi family, who will be contesting the Amethi seat, also in Uttar Pradesh state. | |
| Modi's party is considered the front-runner heading into the elections. | Modi's party is considered the front-runner heading into the elections. |
| "People are so angry with the Congress party. There have been so many scams, so much corruption that has not gone punished," said Jagdambika Pal, a veteran politician in Lucknow who recently resigned from the party. | |
| Satyadev Tripathi, a senior leader of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh, said recent polls were misleading. One by the US-based Pew Research Centre said 63% of Indians preferred the BJP over Congress. | |
| "The people won't be affected by this slogan-mongering. The BJP and their prime ministerial candidate are just selling dreams. The people don't believe in false or tall promises," Tripathi told the Guardian. | "The people won't be affected by this slogan-mongering. The BJP and their prime ministerial candidate are just selling dreams. The people don't believe in false or tall promises," Tripathi told the Guardian. |
| In an added twist, the new Aam Admi (Common Man) party hinted on Sunday that its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, may run against Modi in Varanasi. | |
| Indian media reported that workers from the AAP had already travelled to the city to prepare the ground for Kejriwal, a former tax inspector turned activist politician, to campaign there. | |
| The AAP emerged from a largely spontaneous anti-corruption movement that swept India three years ago and won sufficient seats in a recent state election to briefly take power in Delhi. | |
| Modi is also expected to contest a parliamentary voting district in Gujarat. Under Indian election laws, a person can contest more than one constituency, but Modi has to choose one seat in parliament after the election results are announced. | |
| Voting in the elections will be held from 7 April to 12 May. |