Rajnath Singh seeks hat-trick victory in Lucknow

NEW DELHI: Many Prime Ministers have contested from Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha in the country. This historical trend continues in Varanasi with Narendra Modi. The Lok Sabha constituency of the same name in the UP capital, Lucknow, is named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayee won five consecutive terms from 1991 to 2004. However, he also faced defeat twice.

Senior BJP leader and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who has held the constituency since 2014, is aiming for a hat-trick victory this time. His main opponent is Ravidas Mehrotra of the Samajwadi Party. During the first Lok Sabha elections in 1951-52, the constituency was known as Lucknow District Central Seat. Vijayalakshmi Pandit, sister of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first MP. After her death in 1953, Sheorajwati Nehru, from the Nehru family, won a by-election in 1954.

In the second Lok Sabha election in 1957, when Lucknow constituency was established, Vajpayee contested on a Jana Sangh ticket but lost to Congress's Pulin Bihari Banerjee by 12,485 votes. He also faced defeat in 1962 against BK Dhawan of Congress by 30,017 votes. However, the first defeat for Congress occurred in 1967 when Independent candidate Anand Narayan Mulla emerged victorious.

In 1971, the Congress regained the constituency through Sheila Kaul, a member of the Gandhi-Nehru family. However, it suffered a setback in 1977 during the anti-Emergency wave. Sheila Kaul made a comeback in 1980, but in 1989, Lucknow supported Janata Dal's Mandhata Singh. Vajpayee returned in 1991 after 29 years, defeating Congress's Ranjit Singh by 1,17,303 votes, thus compensating for his previous defeats. Vajpayee continued to win in Lucknow until 2004.

In 2009, Lalji Tandon defeated Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress by 40,901 votes, securing the sixth consecutive victory for the BJP. This winning streak continued through Rajnath Singh in the 2014 and 2019 elections. In 2014, BJP national president Rajnath defeated Samajwadi candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi by 2,72,749 votes. In the 2019 election, actress Poonam Sinha, wife of rival actor Shatrughan Sinha was his opponent.

2019 result

Rajnath Singh (BJP): 6,33,026 votes (56.7%)

Poonam Sinha (SP): 2,85,724 votes (25.5%)

Acharya Pramod Krishnan (Congress): 1,80,011 votes (16%)