CARACAS (Reuters) - State governor Henrique Capriles leads polls to win an opposition primary in Venezuela on February 12 and fight President Hugo Chavez in the October presidential vote.
Here are some facts about him:
* Capriles is governor of Venezuela's second-most populous state, Miranda, which includes parts of Caracas. The state ranges from the Venezuelan capital's largest shanty town Petare to peaceful fishing villages on the Caribbean coast.
* A law graduate, Capriles became Venezuela's youngest legislator at the age of 26, then won the mayorship of a Caracas municipality before beating a die-hard Chavez loyalist, Diosdado Cabello, to the Miranda governor's office in 2008. He says that surprise win against a government heavyweight augurs well for a presidential campaign against Chavez.
* Capriles leads polls by between 10 and 20 percent against his nearest rival, another state governor Pablo Perez, among the five candidates bidding for the opposition Democratic Unity coalition's presidential ticket in the primary vote.
* The charismatic and energetic Capriles, 39, rides a motorbike and heads into shanty towns most days to supervise projects and talk to working-class voters. Some say he has deliberately cultivated an almost Chavez-like image of being on the street and in constant contact with the poor.
* Capriles' grandparents on his mother's side fled the Nazis in Poland during World War Two, arriving in Venezuela with just a suitcase stuffed with clothes and no Spanish. "Imagine that some people in the Chavez government are so ignorant they actually call me a Nazi," he is wont to say.
* His grandparents set up a lucrative cinema business in Venezuela and through them, Capriles once met legendary Mexican comedian Mario Moreno -- best known as "Cantinflas".
* A keen basketball player and sports lover, Capriles says he relaxes by finding some friends for a game or going for a quiet run after dark.
* Like Chavez, he has tasted jail. He was imprisoned for four months on charges of fomenting a protest at the Cuban Embassy in 2002, although he says he was mediating. He was acquitted of the charges at trial, though there is chatter in political circles that they could one day be revived.
* If elected, Capriles wants to copy Brazil's "modern left" model of economic and social policies. On the campaign trail, he has sought to appeal to traditional Chavez supporters, stressed inclusiveness rather than attacking the president, and urged Venezuelans to "get on the bus" for change.
(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray)
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