Mamata Banerjee suggested Priyanka Gandhi-PM Modi contest in Varanasi in 2024: Sources

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday proposed the name of Priyanka Gandhi as the INDIA alliance's joint candidate from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming 2024 general elections, sources told India Today. The suggestion was made during the fourth meeting of the INDIA alliance held in Delhi on Tuesday.

After the meeting, when asked about the suggestion, the West Bengal chief minister said she can not share everything that the leaders discussed in the meeting. It was reported that she also suggested Mallikarjun Kharge's name for the prime ministerial candidate for 2024, a move that reportedly upset Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav.

Prime Minister Modi has won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat twice, in 2014 and 2019, with a bumper margin. In 2014, when Modi announced his candidature from Varanasi, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal challenged him from the seat but failed to make any mark. Modi secured 581,022 votes with 56.37 per cent votes while Kejriwal had to settle with just 209,238 votes at 20.30 per cent votes.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Modi bagged the seat with an even bigger margin. This time, he garnered 674,664 votes with 63.62 per cent votes while his nearest rival Samajwadi Party's Shalini Yadav got 195,159 votes with 18.40 per cent votes.

Speculation about Priyanka Gandhi taking on PM Modi had also surfaced in 2019 but soon it was put to rest as the Congress fielded Ajay Rai, who came third with 152,548 votes (14.38 per cent).