Talk in Delhi is that in next year's parliamentary election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may contest Puri, Odisha. In 2014, he contested two seats: Varanasi, UP, and Vadodra, Gujarat; he would likely contest a second seat in 2019 as well. Like Varanasi, Puri is a centre of Hinduism: it is home to the Shree Jagannath temple, one of the char dham - the four Vaishnavite pilgrimage sites in Hinduism. In 2014, Modi was responding to the call of Maa Ganga; he will no doubt find an equally compelling spiritual call that leads him to Puri.

Actually, the choice will be a political one. The prize that the BJP wants is Odisha, which will hold an Assembly poll along with its 21 parliamentary seats next summer. Varanasi has been a BJP stronghold since the early 1990s - it lost only in 2004 - but the same is not true of Puri, which has been held by the Biju Janata Dal for the last 20 years. Naveen Patnaik, the BJD supremo, has been chief minister for 18 years, and he will likely be looking for a fifth win as CM in 2019 - unless someone asks him to be prime minister.