And then there were 6: Down from 41, meet those in the Varanasi race against PM Modi

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi contests his third election from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, there are six candidates left in the race against him, including Congress state president Ajay Rai.

In 2014, when Modi contested the first time from Varanasi and went on to become the PM, he won by 3.72 lakh votes, or 56.37% of the vote share, against second-placed Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In 2019, when Modi won from the seat again and his government returned to power at the Centre, the PM’s victory margin increased to 4.59 lakh votes – 63.6% of the vote share – against his nearest rival Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.

While in 2014, 41 candidates were in the fray against Modi – 19 of them Independents – in 2019, 26 candidates contested against the PM, eight of them Independents.

This time, 41 candidates initially filed their nomination papers for the Varanasi papers, of whom one withdrew on his own. Seven candidates finally managed to get past the scrutiny process.

Polling for Varanasi will be held in the last phase on June 1, three days before the results are announced.

Since 1991, the BJP has won the seat seven times, losing it only once, in 2004, to the Congress’s Rajesh Kumar Mishra. In 2009, before Modi picked the constituency to make his Lok Sabha debut, it was won by BJP stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi.

A majority of the voters in the constituency are upper-caste Hindus, including Brahmins, Bhumihars and Jaiswals, followed by Muslims and OBCs.

A look at the six who remain in the race:

Movable assets: Rs 6.66 lakh; Spouse: Rs 45.37 lakh

Immovable assets: Rs 1.25 crore; Spouse: Rs 80 lakh

Number of cases: 18

An old leader from the area, with a strongman image and several cases against him in the state, Rai is