BJP leader Narendra Modi Saturday promised to clean up this holy city and the sought people's support for it.
"By 2019, when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we should have cleaned up the country," Modi said on the banks of the Ganga river in this Lok Sabha constituency that elected him by a huge margin.
"We have to clean India and have to begin from Varanasi. People must be thinking why is this person talking of garbage? But that can change India," he said after offering prayers to the holy river.
He said cleaning "our surroundings is also one way of serving Mother India. It's with small chores that big goals are accomplished".
"We have to ensure that Kashi (Varanasi) should not remain dirty. We would not let the city remain dirty," he said.