The Congress party on Thursday, April 25 declared Ajay Rai as its candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his constituency, bringing an end to speculations of fielding Uttar East General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Varanasi.
This is the second time, the grand old party has chosen Ajay Rai as its candidate for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. The party had fielded Rai against Modi in 2014. During the last general elections, Rai managed to poll 75,614 votes and finished third. In the polls, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stood second.
Ajay Rai is a five-time MLA from Uttar Pradesh. He started his political journey as Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) student wing’ member. He has won the assembly elections from Kolasala constituency (Uttar Pradesh) three times in a row for BJP between the years 1996 and 2007.
Rai switched to the Samajwadi Party in 2009 after the saffron party denied him Lok Sabha ticket, he contested against BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi, where he stood third with 123826 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party’ Mukhtar Ansari came second.
Elections in the Varanasi constituency will take place in the last phase of the General Elections 2019 ie on May 19.
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