Hoping to recreate his successful Delhi poll debut, where he defeated Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit by a huge margin, Arvind Kejriwal announced that he is ready to take on Narendra Modi from the Varanasi constituency.
However, he didn't formally announce his candidature from the constituency and instead declared he would hold a mega-rally in the Hindu pilgrim town to gauge the mood of the people there.
The rally is all set to kick off today in Varanasi with Kejriwal, and AAP's social media team, warming up for it, rather scrupulously. Now most politicians on Twitter know better than paying attention to the over-enthusiastic, partly incoherent social media fanatics that every party nurtures.
Arvind Kejriwal. AFP.
You won't find a Narendra Modi or a Shashi Tharoor responding to either glowing praise or virulent attacks on them on Twitter. They won't, themselves, debunk or back the several improbable conspiracy theories floating around on the web. However, Kejriwal, either because he is edgy or because he wants a strong buzz before he lands in Varanasi, retweeted a tweet suggesting AAP is planning violence in Varanasi.
BJP planning smthng? "@mediacrooks: Everyone suspects there will be violence by @ArvindKejriwal in Varanasi pic.twitter.com/E6vypERNLo"
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 24, 2014
He also seemed to be drumming up buzz around issues he might possibly address in Varanasi. He posted a series of tweets on the Election Commission issuing notices to oil minister Veerappa Moily.
The Times of India reports that senior leader Sanjay Singh has stationed himself in Varanasi over the past few weeks preparing for Kejriwal's mega rally. The TOI report says:
"Senior leaders like Sanjay Singh are camping in the city for the past two weeks, while more than 5,000 volunteers from across the state had reached Varanasi by Sunday evening and more are expected to arrive by Tuesday for the public meeting. The party has set a target of a crowd exceeding 1 lakh. "Unlike rallies of other parties, people here are coming on their own to listen to Kejriwal," claimed Rajesh Singh, a volunteer."
Incidentally, Varanasi has now started trending on Twitter and the AAP social media team is said to have started a new hashtag 'Chalo Benaras'. TOI observes that instead of Varanasi, the AAP team prefers calling the city Benaras to strike a chord with the thousands of people who prefer using the city's old-school name.
Supporters have already started gathering at Varanasi and Twitter is slowly warming up to images of crowds headed towards Kejriwal's rally venue.
HUGE CROWD AT VARANASI STATION #KejriwalinVaranasi pic.twitter.com/j1U1JaqthZ
— KEJRIWAL/#AAP FANS (@aap_103) March 25, 2014
Now, it has to be seen if Kejriwal indeed takes on Modi in Varanasi and heralds a direct combat with the BJP or finds a way out to ensure an electoral win from some other less controversial constituency.
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