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Updated: May 17, 2020 09:45 IST

Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi said on Monday that chemistry defeated arithmetic in the Lok Sabha elections in an apparent reference to the opposition coalition in Uttar Pradesh, and added that workers of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced “political untouchability” because of a wrong perception.

Speaking to party workers in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said that BJP workers were killed in Tripura and West Bengal because a narrative of violence was created against it, and that elections in UP had given a new direction to politics.

“Dr BR Amedkar and Mahatma Gandhi worked to put an end to untouchability but it is unfortunate that political untouchability has increased in the country . BJP workers are the victims of political untouchability as several forces are creating wrong perception about us. But the chemistry of ‘samajshakti’ (power of society), chemistry of ‘adarsh’ (ideals) and ‘sankalp’ (resolution) defeated all calculations and arithmetic,” he said.

Modi urged “political pundits“ to open their eyes after the BJP’s commanding performance in UP (the party won 62 of the 80 seats in the state despite a tie-up between regional powerhouses Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. “Political pundits have to agree that there is chemistry beyond poll arithmetic,” he said.

“Political pundits may hold the theory that politics is about perception but they will have to rethink. Two things, transparency and hard work, have the strength to defeat those who try to create wrong perception,” Modi said.

The SP-BSP alliance was expected to bring together a sizeable number of backward, Muslim and Dalit votes, and the combined vote share of the two parties exceeded that of the BJP in 2014 in a number of seats. However, the coalition failed to topple the BJP, which saw a rise in its vote share, in a performance that many experts have credited to Modi’s popularity and personal appeal.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath hit out at the Congress and other opposition parties in his speech. ”Many people wanted to contest election from Kashi (Varanasi) but they gave up the idea after seeing the huge crowd in the road show of PM Modi,” he said.

During the campaign, a number of Congress leaders had urged party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest from Varanasi, and she had also said that the party would take the decision on her candidature. But the party decided to field local leader and MLA Ajay Rai from the seat, ending all speculation.

On Monday, Modi visited Varanasi along with party chief Amit Shah and Adityanath, and began the day by offering prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple amid chanting of hymns.

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Folk artistes performed traditional dances along the route of Modi’s cavalcade as thousands turned out to see their MP. “Who stopped them (the opposition) from celebrating Diwali in Ayodhya,” Modi asked, adding that the BJP gave equal importance to culture and vision of the 21st century. He said India was working with the goal of becoming the world’s third largest economic power in future. He also congratulated the people of UP saying that the state worked for strengthening the foundation of a healthy democracy.

“Showing its faith in democracy in 1977 (when then PM Indira Gandhi was defeated in elections called after the Emergency), UP broke many boundaries and gave a direction to the country. I also thank party workers for working hard in the election and motivating voters. The workers of Kashi (Varanasi) have passed the poll examination with distinction and they are behind the landslide victory of the party,” he said.

Shah said that UP would be the number one state in the next five years. He pledged to develop Varanasi further in the next five years following the party’s spectacular victory in the LS polls.