India, Sept. 17 -- It was Saturday, March 14, 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its candidate from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The incumbent United Progressive Alliance was in doldrums but the BJP was looking to maximise its haul from the heartland. The sitting MP, Murli Manohar Joshi, who had narrowly won the seat in 2009, was moved to Kanpur, and Modi landed in the holy city on April 24, 2014.

In his first election speech, he said, "Na kisi ne mujhe bheja hai, na main yaha aaya hu, mujhe to maa Ganga ne Bulaya hai...aur ek balak jaise apni maa ki god me wapas aata hai waisi main anubhuti kar raha hun...(Nobody has sent me, nor have I come here, Mother Ganga has invited me to K...