Battle for Varanasi: Congress' pick Ajay Rai is an old BJP warhorse

Rai is a serial party hopper and has been a member of the BJP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress, apart from contesting polls as an Independent candidate

Ajay Rai, who has been pitted by Congress against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi, is an old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) warhorse, who had shunned the saffron party after being denied ticket in 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Hailing form the influential ‘bhumihar’ (landowners) community of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, 49-year-old Rai is a serial party hopper and has been a member of the BJP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress, apart from contesting the polls as an Independent candidate as well in his chequered political career spanning nearly 25 years.

In 2014, Rai fought the Lok Sabha