LUCKNOW: Instead of spewing venom at each other and resorting to personal attack, the two main candidates from Samajwadi Party and BJP debate on the development work in the city of Tahzeeb, Lucknow.
Actor-turned-politician Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, will be contesting against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh from the Lucknow parliamentary constituency as the Samajwadi Party’s Lok Sabha candidate.
Speaking to Economic Times, Ms. Sinha told, “I don’t do such a thing as my husband Shatrughan Sinha has taught me that — what he had learnt from the likes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani.”
Reminding people of Lucknow of the work done in the past by his party, Sinha said that the party of Akhilesh Yadav deserves the votes of the people of Lucknow.
And BJP too wooing Muslims to seek their support.
Singh on Tuesday visited the Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama to meet Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadwi and also had selfies with Muslim students of a madrasa. Singh also reached out to meet the city’s prominent Muslim clerics.
“Lucknow is a city of tehzeeb (civility) and a virasat of Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji which Rajnath Singh is now carrying forward. Everyone is welcome here to come contest and we will not personally attack anyone-…but we will say that we will win by a record margin,” Rajnath Singh’s son and UP MLA Pankaj Singh said, as per ET reports.
Lucknow accounts for 3.5 lakh Muslims, apart from four lakh Kayastha voters and 1.3 lakh Sindhi voters and (Poonam Sinha is a Sindhi while her husband Shatrughan Sinha is a Kayastha). This will give a major push to her candidature.
However, after the Ali-Bajrangbali comments of CM Yogi Adityanath, Economic Times found that the Shia community which had backed Vajpayee and Singh in the past, seems this time
a bit apprehensive.
“Ali is dear for us and we were angry with such comments. But now Rajnath Singh has come and reached out to our community in Lucknow. We will vote for him as he is a harmonious face inside the BJP,” Faiz Ahmed at the Nadwatul madrasa told ET.
Shatrughan Sinha on April 6, joined the Congress. He was earlier with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Bihar’s Patna Sahib on a Congress ticket.