GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 26th March. Once upon a time, the Congress had its stronghold in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. The political base of Congress in the state continued to dwindle following the ascent of the SP and BSP. But even though they were major players in state politics, the BSP and SP failed to secure the Lucknow parliamentary seat. The Lucknow seat was last won by Congress in 1984. For the past thirty years, the BJP has occupied the Lucknow seat.
Throughout the seven elections from 1991 to 2019, the opposition was unable to raise the victory flag in Lucknow, which is considered to be the BJP’s unbreakable stronghold. Despite forming the government with a complete majority in Uttar Pradesh in 2007 and 2012, respectively, the BSP and SP were unable to realize their ambition of winning the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.
In Lucknow, elephants’ gaits stayed slow
There were four occasions when BSP had the opportunity to seize power. In the 2007 assembly elections, the BSP’s social engineering formula proved to be effective. With a resounding majority, the BSP formed a government. Two years after the assembly elections, in 2009, the BSP secured a mere 20 seats in the Lok Sabha.
The results showed that the SP won 23, the BJP 10, the Congress 21, the RLD 5, and the independent won 1. Dr. Alikhesh Das, the son of former Chief Minister Babu Banarasi Das, was the BSP’s candidate from the Lucknow seat in this election. Akhilesh Das did everything in his power to triumph, but he was unable to do so. The people of Lucknow gave BJP candidate Lalji Tandon full credit for winning. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the congress candidate, placed second, followed by the BSP candidate. During this period, the BSP held an absolute majority in state government.
Jagmohan Singh Verma, a BSP candidate, finished fourth in the Lucknow seat of the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. The Janata Dal candidate Mandata Singh prevailed in this election. The BSP’s Balbir Singh Saluja finished fifth in the 1991 elections.
Naseer Ali Siddiqui placed fourth in 2004, Ved Prakash Grover placed third in 1996, Dr. Dauji Gupta placed third in 1998, Izharul Haq placed third in 1999, and so on. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a BJP candidate, consistently won the Lucknow seat between 1991 and 2004. Independent candidate Ram Jethmalani received more votes than BSP candidate Naseer Ali Siddiqui, who finished fourth in the 2004 elections. Jethmalani took third place. In the 2014 elections, Nakul Dubey, a BSP candidate, finished third. The election was won by Rajnath Singh, a BJP candidate. During the 2019 elections, the SP and BSP formed an alliance.
In Lucknow, the SP cycle was unable to move
Similar to the BSP, the SP has yet to secure a Parliamentary seat in Lucknow. Raj Babbar, an SP candidate, finished second in the 1996 elections. Muzaffar Ali came in second in 1998, Bhagwati Singh came in third in 1999, and Dr. Madhu Gupta came in second in 2004. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP candidate, easily won every one of these elections. Nafisa Ali Sodhi, an SP candidate, finished fourth in the 2009 elections. Lalji Tandon, a BJP candidate, prevailed in this election. BSP occupied the third spot. With a resounding win in the 2012 assembly elections, the SP established a majority government.
Two years after the assembly elections, the opposition, including the SP, was all but eliminated in the Lok Sabha elections. In SP’s share, the family only received five seats. Former Minister and SP candidate Abhishek Mishra finished fourth in the 2014 election, while Poonam Sinha finished second in 2019. Rajnath Singh, the BJP candidate, won both of these elections with a sizable margin.
Caste equation in Lucknow
The Lok Sabha constituency of Lucknow has five assembly seats. Lucknow West, Lucknow North, Lucknow East, Lucknow Central, and Lucknow Cantt are the names of these seats. In terms of Lucknow’s caste system, roughly 71% of the city’s population is Hindu. 18% of this population are Brahmins and Rajputs.
Muslims make up 18% and OBCs make up 28%. Three of the five assembly seats were won by the BJP in the 2022 elections.
It is Rajnath Singh’s third time running as a candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party. This time, SP-Congress is in alliance. The Lucknow seat in the alliance’s seat-sharing arrangement is owned by SP. MLA Ravidas Mehrotra of the Lucknow Central Assembly seat has been declared the SP’s candidate. BSP hasn’t yet disclosed its cards. In the 2014 elections, Rajnath Singh secured 5,61,106 (54.27 %) of the vote.
The margin of victory exceeded 2 lakh 72 thousand
Congresswoman Rita Bahuguna Joshi came in second place with 2,88,357 votes, or 27.89 percent of the total. Third-place candidate Nakul Dubey received 64,449 (6.23%) votes, while fourth-place candidate Abhishek Mishra of the SP received 56,771 (5.49%) votes.
Rajnath received 6,33,026 votes, or 56.70 %, in the previous election. Poonam Sinha, the second-place SP candidate, received 2,85,724 votes, or 25.59% of the total. Three and a half lakh votes was the approximate margin of victory. Acharya Pramod Krishnan, a candidate for the Congress, received 1,80,011 (16.12%) votes to finish third. Despite the SP-Congress alliance this time, the BJP is sure to win. But this time, he’s more concerned with widening the victory margin.
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