Ajay Rai to take charge as UP Congress chief today

Lucknow: Former MLA Ajay Rai will take charge as Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee’s (UPCC) new president on Thursday.
According to party sources, the newly appointed president of the UP Congress will meet the party workers and office bearers of the UPCC at 12 noon today while assuming his office.
After assuming office, Ajay Rai will garland the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, Sardar Patel, and Rajiv Gandhi among other leaders, the sources said.
National Secretaries, senior Congress leaders, party office bearers and workers will also be present on the occasion. 
In view of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party is gearing up for major changes in the state Congress in which Ajay Rai’s appointment is seen as a major boost for the party workers.
Earlier this month, Ajay Rai confirmed that Rahul Gandhi will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi.
Confirming Rahul Gandhi’s candidature, Rai said that the people of Amethi consider him as part of their family.
“The people of Amethi consider him (Rahul Gandhi) as their family because he fulfilled the promises. Rahul Gandhi has connected with local people by doing the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and people now believe that it is the Gandhi family who understands our problems and concerns. The people want Congress to come into power."
Rahul Gandhi lost to Smriti Irani in Amethi, once considered a bastion of the Congress party, by a margin of around 55,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Ajay Rai is best known for unsuccessfully contesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
However, Rai, a five-time MLA, had begun his political career with the BJP. He was elected to the UP Assembly three times on a BJP ticket — in 1996, 2002, and 2007. 
In 2009, he hoped to contest the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi. However, with senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi getting the ticket, he resigned from the party to contest against Joshi on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket. Rai lost.
Rai then contested a bypoll from the Kolasla Assembly seat in Varanasi in 2009 as an independent candidate and won.
In 2012, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh played a significant role in Rai’s entry into the Congress. Rai then contested from the newly-formed Pindra seat in Varanasi as a Congress candidate and won.
Rai failed to win the Assembly polls in 2017 and 2022. (ANI)