Ajay Rai: News

Ajay Rai is an Indian politician from Uttar Pradesh who has worked with various political parties over the years. In 1996, he began his political career with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), later joined the Samajwadi Party (SP), and moved to the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2012. Rai is a five-time MLA of the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly from 1996 to 2017, four times from the Kolasla constituency (now dissolved) and later in 2012, from the Pindra constituency (created in 2008). A BJP MLA from 1996 to 2007, Rai resigned from the party in 2009 to join the SP for contesting the Lok Sabha Elections that year, which he lost from Varanasi to BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi. However, he later won the Kolasla Assembly by-poll and served as an independent MLA between 2009 and 2012 before joining the INC to contest the 2012 Assembly polls. He won again from Pindra and remained in office till 2017 when he lost his seat to BJP's Avadhesh Singh. Rai was fielded again from Varanasi in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha Elections against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, suffering crushing defeats both times.