Congress fields strongman Ajay Rai from Varanasi against PM Modi

In 2014, Narendra Modi had defeated Arvind Kejriwal by 3.72 lakh votes. As there is no popular face against him his winning margin may increase.

Congress on Thursday finally ended speculations and decided to field local strongman Ajay Rai against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi parliamentary constituency. Rai who has several criminal cases pending against him was Congress nominee against Modi in 2014 as well but stood a distant third with around 7.34% votes.

Since the Congress president Rahul Gandhi's sister Priyanka Vadra became formally active in politics, speculations were being made about her challenging Modi from his turf Varanasi. Even Vadra had given some positive signals for such speculations by asking her supporters during a recent political campaign 'Should I contest from Varanasi?'. According to sources, she was eager to contest from Varanasi but Rahul Gandhi did not approve the decision and trusted Rai. There were also reports in some quarters that Congress presidents did not want PM Modi to oust from Lok Sabha or he does not want her sister to lose the first election.

As Rahul Gandhi is contesting from two seats – Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala; even if he wins both he would have to choose one. In such a case, Priyanka would be the obvious choice from the vacant seat.

Rai, a five times MLA in Uttar Pradesh Assembly has been a political somersault. He started his political career as a member of RSS' student wing ABVP and was awarded ticket from Kolasala assembly segment in 1996. He retained the seat from three consecutive times. In 2009, he quit BJP and contest against senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi from Varanasi Lok Sabha as a Samajwadi Party candidate. He lost the election but secured around 18% votes. In 2012, he contested as an independent candidate from Pndra assembly constituency and won the seat. He later joined Congress and was nominated Congress candidate against Modi in 2014. Rai originally hails from Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh and has been reportedly involved in Brijesh Singh gang. In 2012, he had 16 cases pending against him including the Goonda Act and Gangster Act.

In 2014 Lok Sabha election, Narendra Modi had got 5,81,022 votes while his closest rival Arvind Kejriwal had secured only 2,09,238 votes. As there is no popular face against him Prime Minister Modi's winning margin may increase this time.