Who is Ajay Rai? The Congressman contesting against Narendra Modi

New Delhi, Apr 25: Ending weeks of speculation about a potential heavyweight battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi in Varanasi, the party on Thursday announced its decision to field five-time UP MLA Ajay Rai instead.

This is the second time Congress has chosen Ajay Rai as its candidate for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. Modi defeated Ajay Rai with a record number of votes in 2014 elections.

Born in Varanasi to Parvati Devi Rai and Surendra Rai, Ajay is known as a local bahubali (strongman). He began his political career as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party's student wing. He won the Legislative Assembly elections from the Kolasla constituency three times in a row between 1996 and 2007 on a BJP ticket.

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Rai left the party after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket. He then joined the Samajwadi Party and unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Subsequently, he won the 2009 Legislative Assembly by-election from the Kolasla constituency as an independent. He then joined the Indian National Congress.

After the Kolasla constituency ceased to exist post-delimitation, he won the 2012 Assembly elections from the newly created Pindra constituency, which comprises a sizeable portion of the former Kolasla constituency. He has also contested the assembly elections as an Independent candidate from Varanasi.

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In 2015, Rai was arrested for causing violence and arson in Varanasi during a ban on idol immersion in Ganga.

In this uphill task of defeating Narendra Modi, Congress is once again banking on a grassroots man who has a strong Varanasi connect.