Not Priyanka Gandhi, Congress fields Ajay Rai against PM Modi from Varanasi

New Delhi: The Indian National Congress on April 25 fielded Ajay Rai from the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ending speculation on a possible candidature by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The 'will she, won't she' suspense finally ended in a sort of anti-climax with the nomination of Rai, who unsuccessfully contested against Modi in 2014 and finished third in the contest after the BJP leader and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Arvind Kejriwal.

Congress also announced Madhusudan Tiwari as it candidate from Gorakhpur against BJP's Ravi Kishan, a popular Bhojpuri film star.

Speculation on Priyanka Gandhi making her electoral debut from Varanasi had been rife for the past few weeks and was fuelled after Congress president Rahul Gandhi, to a question on whether he planned to field his sister against PM Modi, said last week, "I will leave you in suspense. Suspense is not always a bad thing."

Priyanka Gandhi herself added to the buzz by saying on Tuesday that she



would abide by her party's decision on the matter.

The Samajwadi Party on April 22 declared Shalini Yadav, who joined the party that evening, as its candidate from Varanasi.

After years of working in Congress backrooms, Priyanka Gandhi joined full-time politics in February as in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, hoping to change the party's fortunes in the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

Varanasi constituency will go to the polls in the last phase on May 19.

With the announcement of the two seats, the Congress has named candidates for 424 seats in all.

Prime Minister Modi will file his nomination papers for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat on April 26 in the presence of senior National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders, including Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

In 2014, Modi won the seat by a margin of over three lakh votes against AAP leader Kejriwal. While Modi got over 5.8 lakh votes, Rai managed about 75,000 votes.