Rajnath Singh vs Ravidas Mehrotra on Lucknow seat
The bugle for Lok Sabha elections 2024 is going to sound tomorrow. The elections will come into full swing as soon as the Election Commission announces the dates. It is said that the path to power in Delhi goes through Uttar Pradesh. When it comes to Uttar Pradesh, its capital Lucknow becomes a political hotspot. This time the Lok Sabha elections on this Lucknow Lok Sabha seat are going to be very interesting. Union Minister Rajnath Singh is again contesting from Lucknow on behalf of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party has fielded Ravidas Mehrotra to contest him. While on one hand Rajnath Singh is considered to be the senior most leader of BJP, on the other hand Ravidas Mehrotra is a strong leader of SP. Therefore, let us tell you why the contest on Lucknow Lok Sabha seat is going to be very interesting –
BJP has captured Lucknow for 3 decades
How important the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency is for the BJP, you can imagine that the lotus flag which was hoisted on this seat by the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1991, is flying till date. Since then, SP and Congress have fielded many candidates from Lucknow, but BJP is invincible on this seat since then. Lucknow, in fact, has also been the workplace of former PM and founding member of BJP Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Lucknow is considered the stronghold of BJP because here BJP has been winning the last 8 Lok Sabha elections. Atal Bihar Bajpayee was MP from here 5 times since 1991. Lalji Tandon has been MP once and Rajnath Singh twice consecutively from 2014, 2019. For the third time, BJP has again expressed confidence in Rajnath Singh and has fielded him from Lucknow seat. Let us tell you that the voters of Lucknow seat still consider it as Atal ji’s seat and this is the reason that whichever candidate BJP fields from here, he wins with a huge margin every time.
Rajnath Singh poised to score a hat-trick from Lucknow
Rajnath Singh, who became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2000, is now boasting for the third time about becoming an MP from Lucknow, the capital of the same state. Rajnath has been winning this seat in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019 and is gearing up for 2024. Let us tell you that Defense Minister Rajnath Singh had secured more than 5 lakh 61 thousand votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Then Rita Bahuguna Joshi of Congress was in the fray against him, who got only 2 lakh 88 thousand votes. In 2014, Rajnath Singh had won from Lucknow by more than 2 lakh 77 thousand votes. Similarly, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rajnath Singh hoisted the victory flag of BJP by more than 3 lakh 47 thousand votes. Rajnath Singh got more than 6 lakh 33 thousand votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Rajnath Singh’s heavyweight portfolio
If seen as a leader, Rajnath Singh’s own portfolio is very heavy. Rajnath became MLA for the first time in the year 1977. He became the State Secretary of Uttar Pradesh BJP in 1983, State President of BJP Yuva Morcha in 1984, General Secretary of BJP Yuva Morcha from 1986 to 1988 and National President in 1988. Elected as MLC in Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 1988 and became Education Minister in 1991. Became Rajya Sabha MP in 1994. In 1997, Rajnath took charge as BJP state president. In 1999 he became the Union Transport Minister. Rajnath became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2000 and was twice elected MLA from Haidergarh constituency of Barabanki. In 2002, he took over as the National General Secretary of BJP. In 2003, he took charge as the Union Minister of Agriculture and Food Security. In 2004, Rajnath once again became the General Secretary of BJP. In 2005, Rajnath Singh took charge as BJP National President. After this, he was elected MP from Ghaziabad North in 2009. Then in 2014, he became MP by winning from Lucknow and worked as Home Minister and again won from Lucknow in 2019 elections and is handling the Defense Ministry.
Mehrotra, who was close to Mulayam, had great dominance
On the high profile Lok Sabha seat of Lucknow, Samajwadi Party has fielded MLA Ravidas Mehrotra against Rajnath Singh. Ravidas Mehrotra became MLA from Lucknow Central in the 2022 assembly elections. It is worth noting that in the last assembly elections, Ravidas Mehrotra had defeated the BJP candidate from Lucknow Central by more than 10 thousand votes despite the Modi-Yogi wave. SP candidate Ravidas Mehrotra became MLA from Lucknow East for the first time in 1989 on Janata Dal ticket. In the year 2012, he contested elections from Lucknow Central on SP ticket and won. Not only this, Ravidas Mehrotra has also been a minister in the Akhilesh government. But despite being a cabinet minister, he lost the 2017 assembly elections from Lucknow Central. Now Akhilesh Yadav has made Ravidas the candidate from Lucknow seat and has given him the mission to break Rajnath’s hat-trick.
Talking about his portfolio, SP’s Lok Sabha candidate Ravidas Mehrotra is considered a big player in politics. Mehrotra has been active in politics since his college days. Ravidas Mehrotra also has a unique record in his name. He has gone to jail 251 times and has entered the Limca Book of World Records for the highest number of jail visits. Ravidas contested student union elections for the first time from KKC School of Lucknow and won and became the vice president. After this his political journey started. Ravidas met Mulayam Singh Yadav and from here Ravidas never looked back in politics. Not only this, Ravidas Mehrotra was considered close to former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. This is the reason why important departments were assigned to him in the SP government.
Lucknow Lok Sabha seat equation
Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency consists of 5 assembly seats – Lucknow West, Lucknow North, Lucknow East, Lucknow Central and Lucknow Cantt. Of these, BJP had captured 3 seats in the 2022 assembly elections. If we consider the 2011 vote counting figures, Lucknow has a population of approximately 45 lakhs. According to 2019 data, there are a total of 19.37 lakh voters in Lucknow, of which males are around 11 lakh and there are around 9 lakh female voters. If we look at the caste equations of Lucknow, about 71 percent of the population here is from Hindu community. In this, 18 percent voters are Rajputs and Brahmins and the rest include other castes. Apart from this, there is influence of about 18 percent Muslim voters in Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency. The number of OBC community is around 28 percent. In Lucknow parliamentary seat, Scheduled Tribe is 0.2% and Scheduled Caste is around 18%.
SP had lost in the last election on Lucknow seat
Talking about the last Lok Sabha elections on Lucknow seat, Rajnath Singh had secured more than 6 lakh 33 thousand votes whereas SP candidate Poonam Sinha, who is the wife of Shatrughan Sinha, had got only 2 lakh 85 thousand votes. In this election, Rajnath Singh won the election by a margin of more than 3 lakh 47 thousand votes. In the last Lok Sabha elections, there was about 55 percent voting in Lucknow seat and BJP got a big victory. From here, Congress was at third place, whose Acharya Pramod Krishnam got 1 lakh 80 thousand 11 votes. In the last election, Rajnath Singh had defeated Samajwadi Party by a margin of more than 3 lakh, 47 thousand votes.
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