The 'undeterred' who has been contesting for three decades

This citizen of Varanasi stands every election and never wins

March 06, 2017 09:04 pm | Updated March 11, 2017 11:03 am IST - VARANASI

Narendra Nath Dubey

Narendra Nath Dubey

The Rashtriya Manav Adhikar Raksha Samiti is located near the Varuna Bridge, named after one of the two rivers, Varuna and Assi, which are believed to give Varanasi its name.

An unattended door gives passage to the office, a messy, dimly-lit arrangement. A streak of sunlight sneaking from one of the half-open windows provides visitors with enough light to decipher the writing on one of the posters on the wall.

“World Guinness Book, where are you looking? Adig’s amazing life story is right here,” it reads in Hindi.

“Adig ji , are you there?” we call out. That’s when a balding, stout man in saffron robes behind the front table wakes up from his sleep with a start.

Narendra Nath Dubey, nicknamed by his supporters as ‘Adig’, or the undeterred, is a criminal lawyer-cum-poet, also a practitioner of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. But what makes him popular is his activism and his commitment to elections.

Of 1984 vintage

Since 1984, he has fought every election possible: MLA, MLC, MP and by-polls. Mr. Adig has even filed his nomination for the President’s post on four occasions.

This time he is contesting from two seats: Varanasi South and Varanasi North. “All candidates should consider my long struggle and on moral grounds allow me to win,” says Mr. Adig, bursting into laughter. .

Though they are not very successful — in 2012, only six independent candidates won in UP —independent contestants add to the elections shades that the mainstream parties lack. Mr. Adig brings in an unusual flavour. He is fighting with the support of a lesser-known orthodox Hindu party, the Ram Rajya Parishad, which though non-existent today, won three Lok Sabha seats in the 1952 elections.

So what is Adig fighting for? A Ram Rajya, unlike the Hindu Rashtra propagated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). “Our version will be solely focused on preserving religious sanskriti (culture), justice and truth,” he says.

But his main promise to voters is to relieve them of “stress”, which he believes is the biggest cause of crime and wrongful acts.

Mr. Adig tells voters that he has a ‘Viraat Kashi’ plan in mind to change the face of the city.

Understandably, perhaps, he has not done too well in the elections, forfeiting his deposit every time. He also contested against Mr. Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha election with the symbol of a letter box. He says he has no memory of the losses. “I believe in hope,” says Mr. Adig. “I am an ashavadi .”

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