Congress candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi Ajay Rai on Thursday said he heard about his candidacy through the media. He vowed to wage a good fight against his mighty opponent. Mr. Rai had been the Congress candidate for the constituency in 2014 as well and his repeat candidacy in the face of speculation that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might contest the seat has taken some heat out of the fight.
Mr. Rai, however, has taken it in his stride. “The party has trusted a 'karyakarta' [party worker] and I fought in 2014 as a 'karyakarta' and shall do so again,” he said.
“Priyankaji said that if the party wants she would be willing to contest,” is all he would say on why the candidature of Ms. Vadra did not come about. On Mr. Modi, Mr. Rai said the Prime Minister had broken the vishwas ki dor (strings of binding trust) by breaking many promises made to the people, and that voting would reflect that.
Mr. Rai polled 75,614 votes, against Mr. Modi’s 5,81,022 in 2014.
He dismissed the mahagathbandhan (Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance) candidate, Shalini Yadav, as reflecting the paucity of candidates in that camp. “She fought as a mayoral candidate of the Congress just a few months ago. This shows they have no candidates,” he said.
As Mr. Modi hits the streets of Varanasi , the suspense over his Congress opponent is over.
Earlier, the Congress announced the candidature of Mr. Rai for Varanasi.
The party's central election committee also announced Madhusudan Tiwari for Gorakhpur.
