Varanasi: Ending the much delayed suspense over its candidate from Varanasi, Congress has fielded its five-time MLA, Ajay Rai, to tackle BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from the historic constituency.
For last some weeks, Rai’s was among front runners from Congress probables, even though the party had delayed the announcement in the wake of possibility for a joint consensus candidate by ‘secular parties’ against Modi.Â
Rai, a bhumihar, has switched parties twice. A former BJP man, Rai quit the party after he was denied a ticket for the 2009 polls. Rai then contested on a SP ticket and finished third behind BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi and BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari.
Considered a strongman in eastern UP, analysts say, Rai holds sway over a sizeable chunk of the Bhumihar-Brahmin voters, which Modi will have to wean away to seal his victory from Varanasi.Â