Within 11 months, the Congress replaced Brij Lal Khabri with senior party leader from Varanasi Ajay Rai as party’s Uttar Pradesh president to lead it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Rai, who represents the upper caste Bhumihar community, replaced a Dalit leader Khabri, who was once a close confidant of BSP president Mayawat. The new Congress president had unsuccessfully contested twice against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019 on Congress ticket. He is also a four time MLA.
Khabri was appointed UP Congress president on October 1,2022 along with four regional presidents Now, the posts of all regional presidents have been abolished.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal issued a letter announcing the name of the new president on Thursday evening.
Born in Varanasi in 1969, Ajay Rai started his political career with the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was associated with the BJP from 1996 to 2009. In 1996, he became BJP MLA from Kolasla assembly of Varanasi. After this, no one could snatch the Kolasla assembly seat of Varanasi from Ajay Rai.
From 1996 to 2009, Ajay Rai was continued as MLA from the Kolasla assembly seat in Varanasi. After this, he left the party in 2009 due to differences with BJP leaders and joined the SP for a brief period before contesting elections as an Independent candidate and winning state elections from Pindra in 2009. He later joined the Congress.
Ajay Rai came third in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the last Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi stood first from Varanasi and Arvind Kejriwal from Aam Aadmi Party stood second. After this, again in the 2017 assembly elections, Ajay Rai stood from the assembly seat of Pindra but lost.
After this, again in 2019, he contested against PM Modi, in this also he had to face defeat.
Coming from a political family, Rai’s elder brother, also an MLA, was shot dead by mafia don Mukhtar Ansari’s henchmen.