Varanasi students split over Modi, Kejriwal

The fight between AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for supremacy in this temple town has divided students of IIT, Varanasi into two camps who will campaign for their chosen candidate in their own ways.

“I would have supported Kejriwal, but I was not happy with the way he performed in Delhi. He should have proved himself. Running a nation involves a lot of things which includes your economic and other policies. Modi is a tested brand and he has shown his mettle in Gujarat,” says 21-year-old Archit Bindal.

Bindal, an electrical branch student at the IIT whose establishment is intimately linked with that of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), will along with other Modi-supporter friends campaign in his own way.

He, however, maintains that if given a choice between AAP and BJP in Delhi, he would prefer the new party and give it a second chance. Preetam Machi (22), another Modi supporter, a fourth year mining student says, “Congress is out of race.”

“Just in case AAP gets in a position to form the government it cannot form the government without Congress. So what is the use of supporting AAP here?” he wonders.

Prabhakar Gautam, 21, another fourth year student from electrical branch says he was inspired by Kejriwal’s book ‘Swaraj’.