Modi meets his match in Ajay Rai

Ajay Rai is known as a modern-day Robin Hood with over a dozen criminal cases against him but who commands a sizeable following among the poor and youth. On the day Congress announced the candidature of Rai his supporters displayed their show of strength by holding a road show with over a dozen of them carrying guns.

Rai, who had stood third in the last Lok Sabha election, is expected to take away a substantial chunk of young votes who appeared to have been influenced by Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi’s Hindutva demagoguery. However, Rai’s entry into the electoral arena has also given an option to the Muslim voters who appear to be rallying around Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal.

In the 2009 elections, underworld don Mukhtar Ansari, now in jail, contesting as a candidate of Bahujan Samaj Party, had polled over 160,000 votes, paving the way for the victory of BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi by a thin margin of 16,000 votes. If the Muslim votes get divided between AAP and Congress this time, it would work to the advantage of Modi.

The Congress candidate is banking on the fact that he is the only local man among all the leading contestants. Modi, Kejriwal, Kailash Nath Chourasia of Samajwadi Party and Vijay Prakash Jaiswal of the BSP are all from outside Varanasi.

Rai, on the other hand, is from Varanasi and has been an MLA three times, twice as a BJP member and once as a Congress member.

Rai, who hails from the powerful Bhumihar caste, has an army of semi-literate young men who are more than a match for the Hindu hothead supporters of Modi. “Rai’s candidature will ensure that Modi fanatics won’t dare to resort to intimidating tactics to prevent anti-BJP campaigners and voters,” says an independent observer. With Modi’s “Arvind Kejriwal is a Pakistani agent” remark and his close aide Amit Shah’s provocative call for “revenge” to the Hindus of Western Uttar Pradesh, there has been an escalation of tension following which the poll administration has deployed a large contingent of Rapid Action Force around the Kashi Vishwanath temple and Gyan Vapi mosque in the heart of the city.

The fear of the palpable tension breaking out into violence during campaigning for the May 12 polls on slightest pretext looms large over the people of Varanasi. Modi supporters, who threw black ink and eggs on Kejriwal’s road show on March 25, are reported to have warned AAP volunteers against attempting to carry out door-to-door campaign in the narrow and winding lanes of the city saying they would not be welcomed by the residents. Undaunted, AAP volunteers have been distributing a four-page pamphlet in which Kejriwal explains the reason why he decided to challenge Modi.

Kejriwal and his team of campaign volunteers will be camping in Varanasi from April 14.

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