BJP youth wing leader claims party demanded money for ticket

Protests by disgruntled aspirants in some Assembly seats in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency are refusing to die down, with a BJP youth wing leader today claiming he was denied ticket from Rohaniya seat as failed to arrange Rs 25 lakh demanded by a party leader.
BJP youth wing leader Manish Singh, in a press conference, alleged he got assurances from the senior party leader that he would be made candidate from Rohaniya but would have to pay Rs 25 lakh, adding he was denied ticket when he failed to arrange the amount.
"The party conducted an internal survey ofwinnable candidates, and said that I am one among those chosen. But I was denied ticket on the recommendation of some of the senior leaders. Money power has over powered the eligible candidates," Singh claimed.

However, Kashi region president and MLC Laxman Acharya refuted the allegations by Singh, saying the candidates were selected by a process strictly followed by the party.
"Deciding ticket is not the responsibility of one person, on whom he is levelling such allegations. It is decided collectively at the party forum," he said.
Meanwhile, protests by party workers, demanding replacement of BJP candidates declared for Varanasi South, Varanasi North, Varanasi Cantt and Shivpur Assembly seats continued.

Party sources said Union ministers Manoj Sinha and Mahendra Nath Pandey are camping here and have been entrusted with the responsibility to calm down the protesters.

They had been holding meetings with party workers here for the last four days.
The team of Akhilesh and Rahul are also likely to hold a
road show in Varanasi on March 4 and senior leaders of both the parties are camping there to oversee their strategy in the face of the moves by the saffron party.
BJP president Amit Shah has been in constant touch with partymen, making frequent trips and over the past week, he stayed back in Varanasi for five nights meeting finetuning the strategy with Union ministers and party leaders.
According to BJP, this is the first time that the party has set up a new media centre near Chawka Ghat in Varanasi, where at least one Union minister addressed mediapersons every day to highlight achievements of the Modi government, the party's manifesto.

The minister also targets the Akhilesh government, its alliance with Congress, and the BSP.
Moreover, the party has set up a war room at its headquarters in Kashi region in Gulab Bagh area, where party workers have been assigned the task of publicising BJP programmes through social media.
A protocol cell has been set up to look after arrangements for Union ministers visiting Varanasi, while a separate 'Awas Vibhag' (housing cell) has been formed to manage accommodation for visiting BJP leaders.
Over the past week, Union ministers who have visited Varanasi include Rajnath Singh, J P Nadda, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Kalraj Mishra, Uma Bharti, Ananth Kumar, Smriti Irani, Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Santosh Gangwar, Krishna Raj and Anupriya Patel.

BSP chief Mayawati is also touring these constituencies addressing three to four election rallies a day while leaders of her party have been assigned the task of staying in contact with the electorate at the grassroots level.