VARANASI, India—June 1 was the last day of voting in India’s six-week-long election before a new government is declared on June 4. Polling booths in the ancient city wore a festive look, decked with tricolor balloons, banners, and pictures.
Varanasi is thought to be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city. It’s also known as Kashi, which means “light” in Sanskrit. As the constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the “city of light” has been in the spotlight as India’s massive election wraps up.
The city’s alleys, too narrow to accommodate a bike but home to some of the most ancient and densely packed neighborhoods and bazaars in the world, saw a steady stream of voters of all ages. Some came to the polls along with family, including aging parents and grandparents.
At the polls, belief in democracy and awareness of the Indian constitutional right of universal suffrage was palpable. Citizens from all economic classes expressed clear expectations of their elected representatives and rational judgments about their past leaders.
In the three days leading up to Election Day, The Epoch Times interviewed more than two dozen citizens of various age groups and backgrounds in different neighborhoods of the ancient city and found an intense advocacy for more job opportunities, better living conditions, and accountability. Those who had benefited from such policies in the past expressed confidence in their elected leaders, while those who have been adversely affected demanded redress and expressed confidence that their vote mattered in shaping their future.
Anushya Sinha, 26, was one of the first to come to the election booth at Assi Ghat—one of the city’s many steep flights of steps leading down to the Ganges river—after the voting started on June 1 at 7 a.m. Indian Standard Time. It was her first opportunity to vote in her native city; during the last elections, she was a history student in Australia.
Ms. Sinha said she’s voting because it’s her constitutional right.
“I’m self-aware, and I’m voting for my member of Parliament. Lots of rights have been done; wrongs also have been in the policy,” she said. “There’s lots of development on the ghats, lots of new roads built. Lots more needs to happen, including introspection.”
Kashi is a pilgrimage town where people throng into temples before dawn. Many shops open at 6:30 a.m., particularly small shops that sell tea in earthen cups for as little as 5 rupees (6 cents) each. However, on June 1, they were mostly closed because of the voting that started at 7 a.m. Natives of the city—who stand out distinctly from tourists—could be seen walking to their respective booths.
Raju Sahni, a boat driver, has been voting for 25 years. He began work early on June 1 so he could take off in the afternoon to vote.
The boat trade is as old as civilization on the Ganges and remains an important means of transportation. Traditionally, the right to own a boat is held by only four ethnic groups: the Majhi, Mallaah, Sahni, and Kevat. It is tied to one’s ancestral ghat as well.
Hence, Mr. Sahni can’t own a boat on Assi Ghat—he is a native of Raj Ghat, a far-off river bank where there is no tourist traffic—but he makes a living here rowing a boat owned by someone else.
Mr. Sahni said that “Banaras,” a popular vernacular name for Varanasi, is a bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party of Mr. Modi.
“I’m voting for BJP. Since Vajpayee’s time, I have voted for BJP,” he told The Epoch Times, referring to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who served three terms, ending in 2004.
In 2022, Mr. Modi inaugurated Varanasi’s 85th ghat, the Namo Ghat, which has become a popular tourist attraction. It’s less than a mile from Mr. Sahni’s home ghat, bringing him hope for better economic opportunities there, he said.
Mr. Sahni said things work better when both federal and state governments are controlled by the same party. Before the BJP became India’s ruling party as well as the ruling party of Uttar Pradesh, where Varanasi is located, it was more difficult to get things done, he said.
“No one was bothered about things like religion and heritage. But now, even light and roads are built.”
Mr. Sahni expressed concern that if BJP doesn’t come to power, the policies and plans that the party has initiated won’t come to fruition.
“With their victory, I hope this will continue,” he said.
An hour’s boat ride took Mr. Sahni to Dashashwamedh Ghat, close to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath temple. Due to heavy traffic, he had to moor his boat a short distance from the steps of the ghat.
As a boatman, he was enthusiastic about the detachable infrastructure and floating jetties around the new Kashi Vishwanath corridor, which directly connects the famous temple and the ghats along the river, avoiding congested streets. He said the new facilities will be helpful during the peak monsoon season, which will start soon.
He anchored his boat at a newly built floating jetty, which held a few changing rooms for pilgrims. The steps from there to the neighborhoods of Dashashwamedh Ghat were steep and stinking of human waste. The street leading to the neighborhood above was extremely narrow, holding many little shrines. In some places, the pavement was broken, while in other places it was under construction.
Suddenly, a major temple’s back door opened and a crowd of pilgrims rushed out, clogging the entire neighborhood. By their language and attire, it could be seen that they were tourists from South India.
That street branched out into many narrow byways, finally leading to a polling station decorated with Indian-flag-colored balloons. A row of citizens silently stood for their turn to vote. An aged voter arrived and others made space to let him move past them and vote first.
A little ahead, under a tunnel that connected two narrow streets, a laborer was sleeping on a pile of bricks—signifying a day off in the otherwise busily under-construction city.
Out on the wider road, a steady crowd of pilgrims kept walking. In a narrow adjacent alley, a few had gathered to buy local savories at a shop run by Dilip Kumar, 45, who had already voted before opening for the day.
Mr. Kumar told The Epoch Times that he voted for “development, women’s safety, and nationalism.” He said that, in the past 10 years, the changes occurring in the constituency have been drastic.
“Roads have been built, there’s better power supply, better waste management. Ten years ago, [gold] chain snatchers were common, but today those things don’t happen. I feel people have become honest. They take care of cleaniness better than they did before. All this change happened because of Modi,” he said.
The change should continue, Mr. Kumar said, while stressing that the new government should focus more on generating more employment and controlling inflation.
In another of the dense neighborhoods around the market of Dashashwamedh, Arvind Kumar Rai, a worker of the Indian National Congress (INC) party, was busy helping voters with their voting slips at the INC polling booth.
Polling booths are set up by political parties in India at a distance of 200 meters (about 650 feet) from polling stations to aid voters in checking their names on the polling lists. In some places, INC polling booths were seen working in close coordination with the Samajvadi Party, another local opposition party, which is an election ally of INC in the national elections.
Mr. Rai complained that there were no house numbers on the voting slips and that he hasn’t been able to go and drop them off at people’s homes.
“The biggest problem is the problem of unemployment. Our life is already lived, the future belongs to the youth,” he said, noting that it’s difficult to analyze who will win the elections because there’s no “wave of sentiment” toward any particular political party.
Mr. Rai was formerly a worker with an electronics company and then a railway contractor—he asserted that the government seeks big tenders for big infrastructure projects and that small contractors can’t compete. He said he’s unemployed.
Ragini Kaloujia, 20, a first-time voter and university student, was viewing pictures at a picture booth set up outside the polling station.
Ms. Kaloujia told The Epoch Times that she’s voting for more employment opportunities.
“Modi keeps on doing politics in the name of temples and mosques. We are youth! What else do we need but jobs? There’s a lack of jobs in our state and even those scheduled get canceled,” she said.
Unlike Ms. Kaloujia, rickshaw operator Santosh is a Modi fan because he believes that Mr. Modi has brought change. However, he lamented that he hadn’t been able to vote because he didn’t find his name on voting lists.
“In one election it’s there and in the other, it goes missing,” he said.
Back at the Assi Ghat, by early afternoon, the flow of tourists had ebbed because of the scorching heat. A coconut water vendor, also named Dilip Kumar, was serving those who braved the extreme temperatures—over 116 degrees Fahrenheit—that had plagued Varanasi in recent days.
He told The Epoch Times that he had been selling coconut water at the parking area of Assi Ghat for 10 years, since the time that Mr. Modi was first elected from Varanasi. Mr. Modi’s arrival brought a huge inflow of tourists, he said.
“Since [Mr. Modi] arrived here, I have a daily earning and my household is running,” Mr. Kumar said.
