The Congress finally announced its candidate for Varanasi, pitting local MLA Ajay Rai against BJP’s Narendra Modi and Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal.
This is the second high-profile contest for which the Congress has picked a local leader with “grassroots connect” instead of prominent figures like Digvijay Singh and Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who had offered to enter the fray. In Vadodara, the party has fielded AICC general secretary Madhusudan Mistry against Modi.
Earlier there were reports that the Congress might join hands with “like-minded” parties and field a “common secular candidate” in Varanasi against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. But it finally picked Rai, hoping that other “secular parties” will also rally behind him.
“Rai is seen as a dabang leader, a strong leader. He is someone who will give a tough fight to Modi,” said AICC secretary Avinash Pande, who is in charge of Uttar Pradesh. “We have not reached out to like-minded parties yet, but everyone knows Rai in Varanasi. We cannot allow the secular vote to be split.”
Rai, who belongs to the Bhumihar caste, is the sitting Congress MLA from Pindra near Varanasi. He was earlier with the BJP, but quit the party and fought the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as a Samajwadi Party candidate against BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi. Later, he joined the Congress and stood from the Pindra assembly seat.
The idea of fielding a common secular candidate against Modi was put forth by Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Anil Shashtri. The Samajwadi Party had responded to the proposal by seeking support for its Varanasi candidate, Kailash Chaurasiya. The Mayawati-led BSP, however, rejected the idea for a secular front and declared that it would field its own candidate, Vijay Jaiswal.
The Congress is still hopeful that the plan would materialise. “Let the process of nomination begin. Let us wait till then,” Pande said.
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