A 60-year-old woman in the Ramapura municipal ward in Varanasi has resorted to Gandhigiri protests to challenge to Bharatiya Janata Party, which allegedly ditched her son, a two-time corporator, for the civic polls slated for October 31.

Basanti Devi, the uneducated mother of Vijay Verma -- a BJP corporator -- is greeting the electorate door to door with roses to secure their promise to help her as an independent candidate in ''teaching the saffron party a lesson.''

''My son selflessly worked for the party for the last 15 years and poured all his resources in public service only to be ditched in return by the party at the time of ticket distribution for civic polls,'' Basanti Devi maintained.

The seat from which Verma is a corporator has now been reserved for women. Since Verma's wife died recently, the family was hoping Basanti Devi would get the ticket.

Every morning, Basanti leaves with a bunch of roses for door-to-door campaigning to cash on the pervasive sympathy for her son.

Basanti Devi says public sympathy for Vijay will see her through by over 2,000 votes, much more than the 1,200 and 1,500 vote margin by which her son defeated his rivals in the last two elections.