The Samajwadi party candidate is the first woman to contest elections from the city.
Dutt entered politics by campaigning for the regional Samajwadi Party during the 2009 general elections.
Varanasi is witnessing a three-cornered contest between the BJP, the main Opposition Congress party, and the regional Samajwadi Party.
Her alliance over the presidency with another party, Samajwadi, lasted barely a day.
It was Congress-Samajwadi rivalry that failed to extend the last parliament: Mr Yadav refused to back a minority Congress government.
In the past weeks, Samajwadi Party, a crucial ally from populous Uttar Pradesh state, has been expressing reservations about its support.
The Congress party hopes it will get the backing of the regional Samajwadi party and other smaller parties to help it win.
They have been voting for the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
On another occasion she caught a Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament (MP) and dragged him out of the House for opposing women's reservation.
Ahead of the vote in the upper house on Friday, MPs from another regional party, Samajwadi Party, walked out of parliament, bringing down the margin for victory.
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If that happens, Congress may well get to play the role of a spoiler and join hands with the BSP's rival, the Samajwadi Party, to form a coalition government.
The Congress party hopes that it will be able to replace support given to it by the communists in parliament by receiving the backing of the regional Samajwadi party.
Once a close ally of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that heads Congress, Natwar Singh has been suspended from the party, and seems poised to join a smaller left-wing party, Samajwadi.
That would probably make it the second-biggest party in India's most populous state, behind the Samajwadi party, a low-caste Hindu outfit and sometime Congress ally, which was expected to win 23 seats.
More than 60% of the MPs belonging to two key regional parties, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party - who profess to serve the poor and the untouchables - face criminal charges.
But it is banking on regional parties, mainly Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party which together have 43 members, to help it keep above the half-way mark of 270 in the 540 member house.
Congress has been assiduously courting Samajwadi, and now seems well placed to use it to fill the hole left in its coalition by Ms Banerjee's lurch into overt opposition, and so avert an early election.
The controversy disrupted proceedings in the Indian Parliament Wednesday, where proceedings had to be adjourned after members of the Samajwadi Party, which is known to be pro-Anil, called for the resignation of the oil minister.
The government victory in the Lok Sabha came about after MPs from the regional Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party walked out ahead of the vote, bringing down the majority required for them to win.
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More likely the current ruler of Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav, with 22 national MPs, might be persuaded to join if offered a big enough dollop of development funds for the state.
No one is more worried than Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief of the 20-strong Samajwadi Party, which serves the sort of customers Congress goes after (Muslims and lower castes) in a state (Uttar Pradesh) where Congress is desperate to expand.
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