Congress’ former MP from Varanasi Rajesh Kumar Mishra joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi on Tuesday. The event was attended by BJP national general secretary Arun Singh, along with party leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Anil Baluni.
On Saturday BJP declared Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the saffron party candidate from Varanasi for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
Notably, even before PM Modi, Varanasi had been a BJP stronghold, with the party retaining it consistently since 1991 except in 2004, when the Congress’s Rajesh Kumar Mishra had won.
Rajesh Kumar Mishra was MP from Varanasi between 2004 and 2009.
According to reports, Rajesh Kumar Mishra is likely to contest elections from Bhadohi Lok Sabha seat.
Several reports have stated that the former Congress MP from Varanasi was unhappy with Congress’ seat-sharing deal with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections.
A seat-sharing consensus was reached between Congress and Samajwadi Party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Congress will contest 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, while Akhilesh Yadav’s party and other INDIA alliance partners will field their candidates on the remaining 63 seats.
As per the agreement, Congress is set to field candidates on its strongholds — Raebareli and Amethi.
Additionally, the party will also contest Lok Sabha seats of Kanpur Nagar, Fatehpur Sikri, Basgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki, and Deoria.
Notably, Congress will also field its candidate on Varanasi seat, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This now puts Congress candidature list from Uttar Pradesh under scanner.
Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, a Congress bastion since Independence, has been won by former party president Sonia Gandhi five consecutive times. Sonia Gandhi has decided not to contest again and has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, leaving the bastion vulnerable after another seemingly impregnable fortress,
Further Rahul Gandhi, who is on his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections have not yet been declared. Gandhi is an MP from Wayanad in Kerala. He lost the Amethi seat to BJP leader Smriti Irani in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
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Published: 05 Mar 2024, 04:45 PM IST