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Varanasi Constituency

About Varanasi Constituency

Located in the southeastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi (between 25 degrees 15 minutes N to 25 degrees 22 minutes N Latitudes and 82 degrees 57 minutes E to 83 degrees 01 minute E longitudes) lies in the middle-Ganges valley on the left bank of the river. It is 692 kilometers to the southeast of India's capital New Delhi and 320 kilometers to the southeast of the state capital, Lucknow.

A centre of pilgrimage and rituals for Hindus, the Varanasi constituency is one of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and holds considerable political importance. It is made up of five assembly segments - Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt, and Sevapuri, representing a varied demographic. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian National Congress (INC), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are the main parties in the constituency. The Varanasi constituency gained national attention in 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi first won, and he has retained it since with increasing margins. 
 
Elections 2024
Varanasi constituency will go to polls on June 1 in Phase-VII. The results for the Varanasi constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be announced on 4 June following the conclusion of the polls. 
 
Candidates
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of BJP is contesting elections from Varanasi constituency again. Ajay Rai from Congress and Athar Jamal Lari from the BSP have filed their nominations against him.
 
Voters
According to the data from the Election Commission of India, there were 1,856,791 voters in the Varanasi constituency during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Out of this, 1,027,113 voters were male, 829,560 were female voters and 118 voters belonged to the third gender. As many as 1,732 were postal votes in the constituency. The number of service voters in Varanasi in 2019 was 2,250 (2,148 were men and 102 were women). 
 
Political history
The Varanasi Lok Sabha seat has a diverse history, with the BJP maintaining control since 1991, except for a single term won by the Congress in 2004.
 
In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi of the BJP secured victory in Varanasi, obtaining 203,122 votes, while Mukhtar Ansari of the BSP received 185,911 votes.
 
In 2014, PM Modi won, defeating Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Arvind Kejriwal by 371,784 votes.
 
In the 2019 elections, Narendra Modi again achieved a substantial victory with a margin of 479,505 votes, receiving 674,664 votes against Shalini Yadav of the SP, who garnered 195,159 votes.
 
Read BJP manifesto 2024 
Read INC manifesto 2024

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