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Congress’s Varanasi candidate is not Priyanka Gandhi. It’s PM vs Ajay Rai
The Congress had fielded Rai against PM Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha elections too when he ended up in the third position behind Modi and Arvind Kejriwal of The Aam Aadmi Party.
The Congress on Thursday named Ajay Rai as its candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi, putting to rest speculation of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra making her electoral debut from there. The announcement came on a day when PM Modi started his visit to the temple town with a mega road show.
Watch | Priyanka out. It’s Modi vs Ajay Rai vs Shalini Yadav in Varanasi I Analysis
The party also fielded Madhusudan Tiwari from Gorakhpur against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravi Kishan, a popular Bhojpuri film star. After spending years in the BJP, Rai switched to the Samajwadi Party in 2009 to contest against BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi. The five-time legislator finished third and quit the SP. Later, he joined the Congress.
Read: Why Priyanka Gandhi contesting from Varanasi is not a smart idea for the Congress | Opinion
When the Congress was looking for a candidate against Narendra Modi in 2014, it settled for Rai who had ended up in the third position with just about 7% votes.
Modi had won the seat against Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal by a massive 337,000 votes. He secured 56% votes.
Congress workers wanted to avoid a 2014-like eventuality and urged the leadership to field Priyanka Gandhi — the party incharge for eastern Uttar Pradesh — from either Varanasi or Allahabad, party functionaries said. However, she left it to her brother and party chief Rahul Gandhi to take the call. “You will come to know when the party takes a decision. I have said time and again, I will do whatever the party tells me to do,” Priyanka Gandhi had said when asked about her candidature.
“Having built the suspense on Varanasi seat, the announcement was a sort of anti-climax, more so because it would get drowned in Modi’s road shows,” said Athar Siddiqui of the Centre for Objective Research and Development.
