Varanasi (UP), March 25 (IANS) Ask anyone in Varanasi about UP Congress President Ajay Rai contesting opposite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the third consecutive time in a row, and the counter-question is “Aap ki kya rai hai?”
Everyone agrees that there is no contest in Varanasi where the Prime Minister’s popularity has been soaring with every election. Ajay Rai, who began his political journey with the BJP, switched to the Congress in 2012. In 2014, Rai managed to get around 75,000 votes while Modi won with over 56 per cent vote share.
In 2019, the battle for Varanasi was a three-way contest between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, and Ajay Rai of the Congress. The Prime Minister won again with a vote share of over 63 per cent while SP’s Shalini Yadav got the second spot with around 18 per cent vote share and Ajay Rai managed to get around 14 per cent votes. He finished in the third slot both times, losing to the Prime Minister.
A supporter of Ajay Rai expressed doubts about the purpose of even contesting against the Prime Minister, suggesting that it would have been more graceful if the opposition had let him get elected unopposed. Local poet Rakesh Banarasi likened the election in Varanasi to a celebration and suggested that Rai could have focused his efforts on neighboring constituencies instead.
The Congress suffered a setback in Varanasi when its former MP Rajesh Mishra joined the BJP recently. Political analyst R K Shukla stated that Rai’s candidacy in Varanasi could be seen as a move to boost party morale, but Varanasi has traditionally been a BJP stronghold. BJP has been winning every election in Varanasi since 1991, except in 2004.
