Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chandrashekhar, Narendra Modi
– Photo : Amar Ujala
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Purvanchal has given the country five Prime Ministers and the state nine Chief Ministers. Lal Bahadur Shastri became the second Prime Minister of the country. He was the Prime Minister from 9 June 1964 to 11 January 1966. His birthplace is Mughalsarai, which is now a part of Chandauli district. During this time, this place used to be in Varanasi district. Chandrashekhar, known as Young Turk, was the Prime Minister from 10 November 1990 to 21 June 1991. His birthplace is Ibrahimpatti, which is in Ballia district.
Chandrashekhar, one of the prominent faces of socialist politics in Purvanchal, was a member of Rajya Sabha from 1962 to 1977. Chandrashekhar reached Lok Sabha by winning eight of the nine general elections held after the Emergency. He was defeated only once in 1984 by Jagannath Chaudhary of Congress.
In 2014, BJP’s Narendra Modi contested from Varanasi seat and won by getting a record 581022 votes. He defeated his nearest rival Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party by 4.75 lakh votes. After this victory, he became the 14th Prime Minister of the country.
In the 2019 elections, PM Modi’s magic worked once again and in this election, he defeated SP’s Shalini Yadav from Varanasi by a margin of 479505 votes. He was re-elected as the Prime Minister in 2019. In 2024, Modi won the election from Varanasi seat for the third time and Indy alliance candidate Ajay Rai stood second.