Lucknow's Mohanlalganj Reserve Seat a Prestige Battle for SP; BJP Sees 'Hope in Development Schemes'

Back in 2017, one of the tightest contests was seen in Lucknow’s Mohanlalganj (reserve) assembly seat when Samajwadi Party candidate Ambrish Pushkar had defeated Bahujan Samaj Party’s Ram Bahadur by a mere 500 votes. However, this time both the SP and the BSP have changed their candidates. While the SP fielded its senior leader Sushila Saroj, BSP put Devendra Kumar Saroj in fray.

Amresh Kumar is running for the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mamta Chaudhary for the Congress party.

At the moment, this seat is currently held by SP. This time, all the candidates are exuding confidence to claim victory.

Interestingly, even during the Modi wave during the 2017 UP Assembly Polls, the BJP could not win the Mohanlalganj (reserve) seat. Earlier in 2012, SP’s Chandra Rawat had become MLA from here, the seat has been with the SP for three consecutive times.

BJP’s Kumar feels confident that the UP government schemes like free ration, ‘kisan samman nidhi’ and PM Awas Yojna will make the BJP’s boat sail through this time.

“The people of Mohanlalganj have showered us with love and blessings, so we are confident of winning by a huge margin. We are going for a door-to-door campaign extensively and we are likely to win this seat at least with a margin of 50,000 votes this time. I am saying this as many social groups are supporting me this time and the benefits that people have got from the government schemes have turned the tide in our favour,” he said.

“The BSP is not in competition anywhere this time, our fight is with the SP. The base vote of BSP is now finished. Those who talk about 2017 results, it’s their mistake because now things have changed in favour of the BJP and we are hopeful. People are happy about the law and order situation in the state,” he added.

The SP has maintained that it will be banking on its candidate, Saroj’s popularity. Saroj has also been an MP from Mohanlalganj parliamentary seat.

All nine assembly seats of Lucknow, including Bakshi Ka Talab, Sarojini Nagar, Lucknow West, Lucknow East, Lucknow Central, Lucknow North, Mohanlalganj (Reserve), Malihabad and Lucknow Cantonment, will go to polls in the fourth phase on February 23. The voting on all seats of UP will be done on March 10.

The Election Commission has completed all the preparations for voting on this seat, about 445 polling booths in 299 polling stations have been made. There are around 1,89,131 male voters, 1,73,132 female voters along with 28 third gender voters and 4,737 first time voters registered on this seat.

Read all the Latest Politics News and Breaking News here