By Ayanjit Sen BBC correspondent in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Tight security arrangements have been made throughout the city

He has helped cremate a body on a wooden pyre on the banks of the Ganges river in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.

Now Lal, who comes from a family of cremation workers, is slipping into a fresh shirt to go to a polling station and cast his ballot.

"I shall vote for change. We earn a paltry amount of money and on top of that the authorities are constructing an electric crematorium in our area. We will be ruined this way," says Lal, while chewing tobacco.

Disenchantment with politicians in India's famous holy city in the populous and politically crucial Uttar Pradesh state runs deep.

'Voting is a farce'

Swami Parmanandi, a Hindu monk, is fed up with politicians and elections.

"Voting is a farce. Whoever wins does nothing for the society. Forget creating jobs and curbing the crime rate, there is not even a good clean road leading to the banks of the Ganges river," he says, just after finishing his prayers inside a temple.

Swami Parmanandi: "I am not going to vote"

"I am not going to vote. These politicians should bathe in the Ganges to absolve their sins. But there are some of us with political inclinations, who will go and vote."

Everyday thousands of people bathe in the river with a fervent belief that the murky waters will wash away their sins.

But on election day, politics is dominating over the religious beliefs of one of the oldest cities in the world.

Varanasi, a stronghold of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been decked up with flags of different parties jutting out from shops and buildings.

So much so that even a building housing terminally ill patients, who wait for death in this holy city, is not spared.

Tight security arrangements have been made with barricades set up in different parts of the city.

Varanasi is witnessing a three-cornered contest between the BJP, the main Opposition Congress party, and the regional Samajwadi Party. The Samajwadi party candidate is the first woman to contest elections from the city.

The Congress is eyeing the city this time around-and Rahul Gandhi, fifth generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, attended a well attended public meeting ahead of the polls.

There are people who seem happy just being able to cast the vote.

Shanta, an abandoned woman who lives in a home for widows, is one of them.

"It's a great feeling when you vote. You feel you are part of a society. I have been abandoned by my family after my husband's death. I am staying here in a widow home," says Shanta, just after coming out of a polling centre.

'Elections are a festival'

Mohammed Esa: First-time voter

But Mohammed Esa, a trader in silk saris, says he has not voted in all elections in the past.

"This time I have voted because we want a candidate who has promised to help us," says Mr Esa.

Weavers blame government policies for the downturn in the local sari industry.

B P Dubey, a businessman, says he votes always because voting is like going to a temple to offer prayers on a festival day.

"Elections are a festival that we must celebrate," says Mr Dubey.