Varanasi: Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan may have announced that he would contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, but opposition parties too would make his battle tough as neither Samajwadi Party nor Congress intend to support him in the high-profile constituency.Local leaders of opposition denied the possibility of extending support to any independent candidate like Ravan and said that they are expecting the leadership to announce a candidate soon.On Saturday, Ravan had held a road show in city and announced to contest against PM Modi and said that all parties that want Modi and BJP to lose should support him.SP leaders said that the high command will announce the party candidate from Varanasi after the first phase of polling while Congress workers are also expecting leadership to finalise the name of candidate soon.TOI on Sunday took stock of preparations of local SP and Congress units for polls scheduled in the seventh and last phase on May 19. As per the seat allocation of SP-BSP alliance, the Varanasi seat has gone to SP’s share. When TOI contacted SP’s city president Rajkumar Jaiswal, he said, “The district and city units have forwarded the name of former UP minister Surendra Patel to the high command from Varanasi. If the party does not come up with some big or glamorous face, then there are 90% chances that Patel will be given the ticket.”Patel also appeared confident and said, “Any decision of the party will be acceptable to me. If given the chance, I will expose the lies and false promises of PM Modi. The party will take final decision on candidate in Varanasi after first phase of election on April 11.”Congress district chief Prajanath Sharma said that the preparations to contest Varanasi seat are in progress. “Party high command had asked us to forward name of only those who apply for the ticket. We received two applications and forwarded the same to the high command,” said Sharma, mentioning party workers are ready to campaign for any candidate decided by Congress.

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