What Numbers Say About Narendra Modi’s Varanasi Win This Term
The saffron camp was celebrating the invincibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which seemed unbeatable till the result of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was declared on June 4. Even most national media, senior election strategists, and politicians had suggested an added popularity for the Prime Minister after the inauguration of the Ram temple in the disputed Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya in January this year.
Contrary to all the predictions, the result displayed a significant decline in the popularity of the Prime Minister in his sitting seat, besides proving to be an electoral debacle for the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) across the country. The notable decline in the Prime Minister’s victory margin has become a talking point.
A report by Hindustan Times revealed that the Prime Minister lost in all the assembly segments of Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency where he has been contesting since 2014. Th media house analysed all five assembly sentiments and found that the Prime Minister lost votes in every segment – Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt, and Sevapuri. Notably, all the assembly segments are currently represented by the saffron party and its ally Apna Dal.
The report compared the vote share that the Prime Minister accumulated in 2019 with what he received in 2014, showing a sharp dip in his popularity among the people of his own constituency.
Narendra Modi had secured a lead of 479,505 votes in 2019. The number shrunk to only 152,513 votes margin in 2024, making his majority among the lowest ever for a sitting Prime Minister in India.
Comparing the margin of the previous Prime Ministers, the outlet stated that, excluding Indira Gandhi’s margin after the emergency and the caretaker prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s majority has now become the lowest ever for a sitting Prime Minister in India.
Though the Prim Minister repeatedly pushed the Hindu-nationalist ideology during its past 10-year term, expecting to help him raise his vote bank, the party’s catastrophic electoral result even in Faizabad, the constituency, where Adyoya temple is located, proved to be humiliating for Prime Minister Modi.
