Varanasi (UP), June 4 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat for a third time.
The Prime Minister defeated his rival -- Ajay Rai of Congress with over 1.5 lakh votes.
PM Modi polled 6,12,970 votes, according to the Election Commission data.
Bahujan Samaj Party's Ather Jamal Lari, finished third and remained nearly 5.8 lakh votes behind the Prime Minister.
Ajay Rai -- who has contested and lost each of the past three general elections from Varanasi, claimed that his victory lay in the results.
In 2019, there were a total of six candidates in the fray against PM Modi from Varanasi, which was his launchpad to the national political scene in 2014. PM Modi bagged 63.6 per cent of the votes, and after him, the second-highest vote-getter was Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.
In 2014, PM Modi got 56.37 per cent of the votes and his winning margin was 3.72 lakh. He had defeated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, who was his main rival.