On June 5, when a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi convicted jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder of a local strongman Awadhesh Rai in 1991, his younger brother and Congress leader Ajay Rai hailed the verdict, highlighting that this marked the end of a 32-year-long wait for justice for his family. Awadhesh was 30 years old when he was shot dead. Ajay was then 22. According to the prosecution’s case, on August 3, 1991, Awadhesh was standing outside his house in the Maldiya area of Varanasi when some assailants arrived in a car and opened fire at him. Ajay Rai and an associate were present at the spot, who rushed Awadhesh to the hospital. However, he was declared dead on arrival. An FIR was registered against five accused, including Mukhtar Ansari and his associates, at the Chetganj police station. The complainant was Ajay, who claimed to have witnessed Mukhtar and other assailants gunning down his brother. According to former government counsel Alok Chandra, who had pursued the case, the murder was the fallout of a local “supremacy dispute”. Apart from being a local muscleman, Awadhesh was also engaged in politics and business. In the course of over three decades, Ajay, who switched several parties but continued his legal battle against Mukhtar in his brother’s murder case in which he was a witness and complainant. Before joining the Congress, he had been with the BJP and also the Samajwadi Party (SP). A musclemen turned politician himself, 53-year-old Ajay is a five-time MLA, who has been booked in several criminal cases over the years. He was said to be associated with gangster-turned-politician Brijesh Singh. He belongs to the Bhumihar caste, retaining his hold over his community as well as over Brahmins and seers of the Varanasi region. It is for this reason that the Congress fielded him from the Varanasi seat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Ajay started his political career with the BJP, getting elected as the MLA on the party’s ticket thrice from the Kolasla constituency of Varanasi during 1996-2007. He was eyeing the Varanasi parliamentary seat and parted ways with the saffron party after it decided to field Murli Manohar Joshi from there in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He then joined the SP and contested against Joshi on its ticket. While Mukhtar Ansari also contested that election on the BSP’s ticket, Ajay came third after Joshi and Mukhtar. However, Ajay soon broke ties with the SP as well and decided to contest the Kolasla seat bypoll as an Independent candidate that he won. Ahead of the 2012 Assembly polls, the then All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh managed to get Ajay join the Congress fold. He then contested from the newly-formed Pindra seat in Varanansi as a Congress candidate and won. While Ajay could not win the 2017 election from Pindra and lost to Avadhesh Singh of the BJP, he was chosen by the Congress to contest against PM Modi from the Varanasi parliamentary seat in the 2014 general election, when Modi picked Varanasi as his constituency for the first time. In that election, when the then fledgling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s chief Arvind Kejriwal also took the plunge to contest against Modi, Rai finished third behind the runner-up Kejriwal. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress again pitted Ajay against PM Modi in Varanasi. While Modi garnered over 6.5 lakh votes, SP candidate Shalini Yadav secured 1.95 lakh votes, with Ajay again coming third with 1.52 lakh votes. AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had then held a road show in his favour. After Mukhtar Ansari’s conviction in his elder brother’s murder case, Ajay hailed the court’s verdict, saying, “This is the end of a long wait for us. My parents, I, Awadhesh’s daughter, and the whole family kept patience… Governments came and went and Mukhtar strengthened himself. But we did not give up. Because of our lawyers’ efforts, today the court has found Mukhtar guilty in the murder case of my brother…we are thankful to the court.” He maintained that he and his family fought for 32 years for justice in the case. Ajay also demanded that his security be tightened now. “The man, who stood constantly against all odds should be provided security by the government. If required, I would continue to fight the case even in the Supreme Court,” he said. He has long been demanding security from the government, expressing fear for his life. A prominent Bhumihar leader of the Purvanchal region, Ajay is currently one of the six regional heads of the Congress party in UP. He is party in charge of the Prayagraj zone, where the Bhumihar community has a dominant presence. With the Lok Sabha elections less than a year away and the Congress continuing to remain on the margins of UP politics, Ajay’s work seems to be cut out now amid speculation that major players like the BJP and SP are also looking to make overtures to him.
