ASHUTOSH SINGH
VARANASI: AJAY RAI , who is contesting elections from Kashi against the country’s Prime Minister Modi, was once the lifeblood of BJP. On the day of Ganga Saptami, when Modi ji was filing nominations after taking the blessings of Mother Ganga, which was on TV, at the same time, the state president of his opponent Congress, who is Modi ji’s rival on the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, was also taking a bath in the Ganga. But the electronic media did not give him any space and kept hovering around the head servant. Is this wrong or right… or is it the compulsion of these media people to fulfill their TRP? For this, they show only that which benefits them or which the public wants to see…

But I want to go back almost three decades, to 1996, because I not only recognize Ajay Rai but also know him, this same Ajay Rai was once from BJP. It was here in 1995-96 that BJP leader Late Kalyan Singh had included a young leader Ajay Rai in BJP for the first time at Lahurabir in Varanasi. I am witness to this, we used to walk with them at that time.
There was some criticism of Kalyan Singh in the print media at that time but the visionary leader late Kalyan Singh recognized this diamond as a jeweler and gave him the MLA ticket from an assembly seat (Kolasala) in Varanasi in the next assembly elections. The then Kolsala MLA was Udal, who was MLA from the Communist Party for 6 consecutive terms. A young leader like Ajay Rai breached that invincible fort and hoisted the BJP flag by defeating Udal.
By winning that seat, it was handed over to BJP. Since then he has been MLA from Kolsala continuously. His popularity among the MLAs was at its peak. How many times did Dr. Awadhesh Singh (current BJP MLA), Sonelal Patel (Apnadal, founder and president) defeat everyone? When Krishnanand Rai was murdered in Ghazipur, during his tenure as an MLA, the top leadership of the BJP (almost all the BJP leaders of the state including Rajnath Singh) sat on a fast under the banyan tree near the Varanasi court.
The murderer was the same person who was also the murderer of Ajay Rai’s elder brother Awadhesh Rai. He did not allow any shortage of anything while on hunger strike. Ajay Rai was the leader who made the fast successful with all his might. Later, after about 10 or 11 days, Atal ji ended the fast. The credit for that fast mainly goes to local leader Ajay Rai.
Now comes the matter of 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The then top leadership had said that Ajay Rai, you should prepare, this time BJP will make you a candidate from Varanasi Lok Sabha. He started preparing about 4 years ago. But the party made Murli Manohar Joshi its candidate at the last moment. Look at the intention that he (Murli Manohar Joshi) considered the Varanasi seat safe, this is a BJP seat and I will win it comfortably.
Leaving Prayagraj (Allahabad), candidates were declared from Varanasi.Even then Ajay Rai demanded the neighboring Chandauli seat from the top leadership and if he had got it,
I can say with 100% confidence that Ajay Rai would have won the seat and put it in the BJP’s kitty. After Kamalapati Tripathi, it would have been the upper caste leader who would have fought from Chandauli but the top leadership did not even accept this and a seasonal leader (Jawahar Jaiswal, a person associated with the liquor business at that time who was not even a member of the party) joined the party overnight and He gets the ticket whose image was not good in Banaras. What were the reasons? I will not delve into the depth of that subject because what I know is also known by the educated class of Banaras. From here Ajay Rai’s heart started crying. Because one who is a warrior definitely fights injustice.
Then Ajay Rai contested the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi against Joshi ji on Samajwadi Party ticket. Ajay Rai was defeated in a good triangular fight. Later he left Samajwadi Party and contested the by-election of MLA from Kolsala as an independent and won as an independent.
The well-wishers of BJP were hoping that the BJP leadership would get them back home. They would have accepted it because I not only don’t recognize them but also don’t know them. I have a relationship with them for two generations and I still have it today.
He is my neighbor, my age partner, our companion in happiness and sorrow. The only difference is that he is a leader and not me. But I don’t know what arrogance BJP had, Congress seized this opportunity, Congress people knew that it was made of Bhumihar (Brahmin) leader late Rajnarayan ji. Congress people know that Indira Gandhi’s (Rae Bareli seat) had to face defeat when late Rajnarayan ji had defeated the Iron Lady (in the post-Emergency elections).
They know that this veteran, militant leader (Ajay Rai) is useful, this Brahmastra will be useful someday. And they fought against Modi ji in 2014 and are fighting even today. Like a Maharathi (Karna), he is contesting elections in 2024 also. Certainly, at that time BJP did not have an expert leadership (Chanakya) like Amit Shah, otherwise he would have convinced his BJP workers at any cost. Respected Atal ji had said…
The party should add new workers but must take care that its old workers (who are from the period of poverty) should not be neglected, they are gram chewing workers. You must keep the workers of the period when the party was not in power, but today most of the BJP workers are imported from other parties. Perhaps he is following the statement of former Sagh chief Deoras ji that first capture the land, even if only thorny plants have to be planted, when the land is captured, then the thorny trees will be cut and orchards of mango and guava will be planted.
But a person like us, who has been associated with the Sangh since childhood, feels sad that the BJP has lost its young leader (Ajay Rai). Now it is election time, this is not a matter of concern but only a Bhumihar leader (Ajay Rai) can fight against Modi ji. When politics has become a business for the youth and the spirit of service is extinct, then Ajay Rai is beating the drum against Narendra Modi without worrying about victory or defeat.
Yesterday in the evening some gentlemen met us at the crossroads and said that Ajay Rai ji is doing wrong and will lose. If we will be able to defeat Modi ji, then we said that Indira ji was also considered invincible from Rae Bareli, whether Rajnarayan ji defeated her in 1977 or not, if the planetary transits of Modi ji were opposite and if Ajay Rai ji was defeated… Today I remembered some of the lines my grandfather used to say about the nature of a Bhumihar Brahmin… “Tara kahe suna ye tarai, raah chhod jaat du manai, to tarai kahe suna ye tara, manai na hoy hoy Bhumihara.” …”
These were my personal views.

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