Lucknow: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh filed his nomination papers from Lucknow on Tuesday, and before the day ended, Poonam Sinha, wife of , flew into the State capital, joined the Samajwadi Party and will be the joint opposition candidate against Singh. Shatrughan Sinha himself had quit the BJP to join the Congress on April 6, and is the party candidate from Patna Sahib in Bihar.
Poonam Sinha’s hurried entry into the SP and her candidature from Lucknow has capped the tussle in the Opposition ranks to find a suitable candidate to challenge Rajnath Singh. An earlier gambit of bringing Jitin Prasad to contest from Lucknow did not succeed. Now, a relieved Congress has decided to support Poonam Sinha in Lucknow.
The name of Rajnath Singh, the sitting MP, was announced by the BJP in its first list itself several weeks ago. There had been intense speculation over the choice of a Congress or SP candidate from Lucknow and panic reined till the morning of April 16, as the last date of filing nominations in Lucknow is April 18.
The seat has been allotted to the SP as part of the alliance between the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Poonam Sinha’s name had started doing the rounds about two weeks ago but no official confirmation had been forthcoming. She was welcomed into the SP by Dimple Yadav, the wife of Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Incidentally, Lucknow has been with the BJP since 1991 when former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee won the seat and got re-elected from here till 2009. Lalji Tandon won from here in 2009, followed by Rajnath Singh in 2014.
Poonam Sinha is a former actress and model, and a Sindhi by birth.
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The strongest argument given in favour of her possible candidature was her being married to a Kayasth, a community that has a sizeable presence in the state capital. The community also has the strength to influence the result, but a Kayasth has never represented Lucknow in Lok Sabha. Poonam has never had any connection with Lucknow and is an outsider for all practical purposes.
She also does not have a political background unlike her husband who was with the BJP for more than two decades and has also been a Union minister. Rajnath Singh had won from Ghaziabad in 2009 and in 2014 he contested from Lucknow, defeating Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress by a margin of 2.72 lakh votes.
Joshi has since joined the BJP and is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. She has been fielded from Allahabad as the party candidate. Rajnath Singh has been instrumental in sanctioning and launching of several infrastructure projects in Lucknow, and is popular among all communities.
He filed his nomination papers after going around the city in a colourful procession, accompanied by the two state Deputy Chief Ministers and former Union Minister Kalraj Misra. Incidentally, Lucknow has seen several film personalities as candidates in past elections. Actor Javed Jaffri contested as the Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidate in 2014.
