Interview | Lucknow’s INDIA alliance candidate Ravidas Mehrotra speaks to Maktoob
Ravidas Mehrotra, the Samajwadi Party candidate in the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency, speaks to Maktoob’s Ghazala Ahmad about his election promises, the need for the INDIA alliance, the price hike and unemployment in the country, the anti-CAA protests and state crackdown in Lucknow, and PM Modi’s hate campaigns against Muslims.
Ravidas, a former Uttar Pradesh minister, is fielded against BJP’s senior leader and Union minister Rajnath Singh, who won the 2014 and 2019 elections by a large margin.
Since 1991, the seat has been held by the BJP. Its best-known MP is former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayee contested from this seat eight times. He first contested in the 1955 bypoll, where he came in third. He then came second in 1957 and 1962. After these three losses, he won the seat five consecutive times, in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2004.
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