NSUI BHU chief held before ‘vote theft’ protest during PM’s Varanasi visit

National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) leader and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) unit president Suman Anand was arrested on campus on Friday, 7 November just hours before a planned student protest against alleged vote chori (theft) in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency.

According to the Congress' student wing, Anand was detained from his hostel by police ahead of the protest, which was intended to be a peaceful demonstration highlighting claims of electoral irregularities. Several students alleged that police later conducted searches in hostels and libraries to identify others involved in organising the protest.

The Congress condemned the arrest, accusing the BJP of attempting to silence dissent. In a post on X, the party wrote, “Modi clearly doesn’t want the truth of vote chori to echo in Banaras. He is scared of the youth.”

The NSUI also criticised the police action, saying, “In the lanes of Banaras, there’s a clamour in every alley that their MP won the election by stealing votes. Out of fear that someone might chant ‘Vote thief, vacate the throne,’ arrests are being made.”

The student body further alleged that police were detaining students from Bihar studying in Banaras, calling it “a cowardly attempt to suppress the youth’s voice.”

The Opposition party linked the arrests to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks accusing the BJP of “election theft,” claiming that the government was “rattled” by the growing criticism.

Neither the Uttar Pradesh Police nor university authorities have issued an official statement on the incident so far.

Prime Minister Modi is in Varanasi to attend a series of events and review ongoing development projects in his constituency. The arrests come amid heightened political tensions following renewed opposition allegations over the conduct of recent elections.

With agency inputs