Lucknow, (Thestates.news) |Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat for the third time in a row after defeating his nearest rival Ajay Rai of Congress by a margin of more than 1.52 lakh votes. According to the data of the Election Commission while Modi received 6,12,970 votes, about 4,60,457 votes were polled in favour of Congress nominee Ajay Rai. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Ather Jamal Lari was placed in third place with only 33,766 votes. This is for the third time the Prime Minister had won the seat since 2014, when he contested for the first time. However, this time the margin of votes has reduced as compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha election when he won by more than 4.79 lakh votes. (UNI)