Congress' Varanasi candidate Ajay Rai offers prayers before voting

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 1 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Congress chief and the party's candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Ajay Rai on Saturday offered prayers at Shri Bada Ganesh Mandir in the constituency.
Varanasi is among the 13 seats in the state where voting is underway in the final phase of the general elections.
"The difference in my puja is that I am the son of Kashi, I pray at the temple in Kashi. Kashi stands on the trident of Baba Vishwanath. Whatever I have to pray for, I will pray here. This is the time to stand with the people in their joys and sorrows. Public representative means to stand with people," Raoi said.
Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Ather Jamal Lari from here.
In the 2019 elections, PM Modi won the seat in a one-sided battle, gathering 6,74,664 votes.
Ajay Rai got 1,52,548 votes while SP candidate Shalini Yadav got 1,95,159 votes.
Meanwhile, the seventh phase marks a grand finish to the world's largest polling marathon that began on the 19th of last month and has already covered six phases and 486 Lok Sabha seats.
According to the Election Commission of India, over 10.06 crore electors including approximately 5.24 crore male, 4.82 crore female and 3574 third gender electors are expected to exercise their franchise.
A total of 904 candidates are in the fray for the final phase of polling. The prominent candidates in the fray in this phase include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nishikant Dubey, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Congress leaders Manish Tewari, Charanjit Singh Channi, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Misa Bharti.
Actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut from the BJP is fighting against Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh in Mandi. Union Minister Anurag Thakur is in the fray from Hamirpur, actor-turned-politician Ravi Kishan is contesting from Gorakhpur and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew and Trinamool Congress candidate Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Diamond Harbour. (ANI)