Previously, Ajay Rai, the Congress’ state-unit chief, contested against PM Modi from the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but came up short on both occasions.
Varanasi Lok Sabha Election 2024: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai is once again pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. This will be the third time Rai fights Modi from the Varanasi seat, after coming up short in his previous two attempts in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.
Previously, Ajay Rai, the Congress’ state-unit chief, contested against PM Modi in 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but came up short on both occasions. In the 2014 polls, Modi won by a whopping margin of nearly 3,72,000 votes.
The Prime Minister received over 5,81,000 votes, while his nearest rival, Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, managed around 2,09,000 votes. Rai finished third with a little over 75,000 votes.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modi topped his 2014 performance with an even more emphatic win, registering a thumping victory by over 4,80,000 votes.
PM Modi secured 6,74,000 votes while runner-up, Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate, Shalini Yadav, managed a little over 1,95,000 votes. Rai once again finished a distant third with just over 1,52,000 votes.
Notably, Ajai Rai is a product of the RSS-BJP system and fought his first Assembly election in 1996 on a BJP ticket from Kolasla constituency. Rai won three successive terms from the Kosala, but later switched to the Samajwadi Party in 2008 after being a ticket for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Rai fought the parliamentary polls from Varanasi on a SP ticket in an unsuccessful bid as BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi won the seat.
Rai later won the Kolasla seat in UP Assembly by-polls in 2009 as an independent candidate before joining the Congress in 2012 and winning the newly-carved out Pindra Assembly seat in Varanasi Lok Sabha segment.
However, Ajay Rai, who was appointed the Uttar Pradesh state unit chief of Congress last year, has been unsuccessful in all of his previous attempts in Lok Sabha polls, and will be hoping to change his fortunes by doing the improbable task of defeating incumbent PM Narendra Modi from the Varanasi Lok Sabha Constituency in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
Varanasi will go to polls on June 1 – Phase 7, of the seven-phase Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Votes will be counted on June 4 and results declared on the same day.
Source link
