Varanasi Lok Sabha Seat News: Varanasi Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh is the VVIP seat of the country. Prime Minister from this seat Narendra Modi He is contesting elections for the third time. This time in 2024, there are only six candidates in the fray against him. While 41 candidates had filed nominations from this seat, nominations of 33 candidates were cancelled and one candidate withdrew his nomination. In this way, there are only seven candidates in the fray in Varanasi including PM Modi. These include the name of alliance candidate Ajay Rai.
If we talk about the last two elections, in 2014, a total of 42 candidates were in the fray from Varanasi, in this election Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party was in second place. Whereas in the year 2019, 26 candidates tried their luck. In this election, Shalini Rai of SP was in second place. This time the candidates did not even cross the double digit mark.
Varanasi Lok Sabha seat is considered to be the stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party. BJP has been winning this seat continuously since 1991. However, Congress’ Rajesh Kumar Mishra was able to win only once in 2004. Most of the voters in this area are upper castes. These include Brahmins, Bhumihars and Jaiswals, apart from these, Muslims and OBCs are also in large numbers.
Ajay Rai (Congress-SP alliance candidate)
This time only six candidates are in the fray to challenge PM Modi in the election field. The first name among them is of Congress state president Ajay Rai who is contesting on behalf of India Alliance. Ajay Rai is considered a leader with a strong image, he has contested elections in the years 2009, 2014 and 2019 but remained at third place all three times and lost by a big margin. This time due to the alliance of SP-Congress, he is giving a strong fight. Recently, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and SP MP Dimple Yadav also reached for election campaign in his support.
Athar Jamal Lari (Bahujan Samaj Party)
The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Athar Jamal Lari (70) from here. Lari has been associated with socialist politics since the 1960s. He also held various positions in the Janata Party. In 1984, he contested the first election from Varanasi but lost, after which in 1991 he contested the assembly seat from Varanasi Cantt on a Janata Dal ticket and came second. In 2004, Lari contested from Apna Dal and came third. In the 2022 elections, he supported the SP and is now contesting from the BSP.
Kolisetty Siva Kumar (Yuga Thulasi Party)
The next name in this list is Kolisetty Shiva Kumar of Yuga Tulsi Party, who is originally from Hyderabad and is a former board member of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. He has worked for the protection of cows for a long time. He owns three cow shelters, which shelter 1,500 cows. His election issue is that the cow should be declared the national animal.
Gagan Prakash Yadav (Apna Dal Comradeist)
Gagan Prakash Yadav (39) is contesting from Varanasi seat from Apna Dal Kamerawadi and is raising the slogan of PDM (Backward, Dalit and Muslim). He also has the support of Asaduddin Owaisi’s party. Owaisi also came to Varanasi to campaign for him.
Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Sanjay Kumar (Independent Candidates)
Apart from these, two independent candidates Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Sanjay Kumar Tiwari are also contesting against PM Modi. Dinesh Kumar has been active in local politics for the last 15 years. He says that he is contesting elections to save democracy in the country, while Sanjay Kumar does social welfare work in Delhi and follows Gandhian ideology.
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