LUCKNOW: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Congress on Thursday appointed Ajai Rai as the party chief in Uttar Pradesh, replacing Brijlal Khabri, a Dalit face.
Rai started his political career with BJP and won his first three assembly elections as a BJP candidate from the Kolsala assembly seat in the Varanasi Parliamentary seat, from 1996 to 2007.
In 2009, he contested the bypoll on the same seat as an independent and won for the fourth time. Rai joined the Congress in 2012 and won the Pindra Assembly segment of Varanasi on a Congress ticket to become an MLA for the fifth time. Then senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh was the party’s UP-in-charge and he had played a major role in ensuring Ajai Rai’s entry into the organisation. However, he has not won any election after 2012.
He failed to win the same assembly seat for the Congress in 2017 and 2022 in the saffron resurgence.
However, he has been holding prominent positions in the party organisation for a long time. Recently, Rai was appointed the regional president of the Prayagraj region with the responsibility of 12 eastern UP districts.
Rai is the younger brother of slain coal contractor Awdhesh Rai who was murdered by the Mukhtar Ansari gang in 1994. In June, this year, Ansari was awarded a life sentence for his connection in the Awdhesh Rai killing.
Ajai Rai is also registered as a history-sheeter at Chetganj police station of Varanasi.
According to experts, the Congress central leadership has put the stake on Ajai Rai for his dedication and diligence with which he works at the ground level.
He had taken on PM Modi twice in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Varanasi but lost. Rai had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls on an SP ticket against BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi from Varanasi but was third.