Election 2019: Modi Leads BJP Landslide With Win In Varanasi

Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh with a vote-margin of over 4.7 lakh votes.

With BJP sweeping through most parts of the country, Modi got a second term as prime minister.

Read highlights from the 2019 Lok Sabha election results .

Prime Minister Modi was widely expected to retain his seat in Varanasi. In 2014, Modi secured over five lakh votes, defeating Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal by more than three lakh votes, and receiving 56.40% of the votes.

This time around, he faced virtually no competition.   

Yadav , who was formerly with the Congress Party, was the SP-BSP alliance candidate. She got just under 2 lakh votes. Her father-in-law Shyam Lal Yadav, a Congress Party leader, won the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi in 1984. 

The Congress  fielded Ajay Rai, a five-time MLA, and a prominent figure in Varanasi, who has previously contested elections for the Congress, SP and the BJP. He received roughly 1.5 lakh votes.

Tej Bahadur Singh , the former Border Security Force (BSF) personnel who exposed the poor quality of food served to Indian soldiers, was disqualified from running by the Election Commission (EC).

Earlier this month, Yadav told HuffPost India that with the powerful caste-combine and Modi’s diminished popularity, she was in a position to “give him a tough fight.”

After hinting that she may contest against Modi, Priyanka Gandhi eventually did not run. 

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