Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow, held a 2-kilometre roadshow ahead of filing his nomination papers on Monday. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami accompanied Singh at the roadshow.
Lucknow will go to polls alongside 13 other UP constituencies on May 20 during the fifth phase of the general elections.
According to an IANS report, UP Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak invited representatives of various social, business, religious organisations and public representatives to be a part of the roadshow. On Sunday, Pathak said development work done by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow was unparalleled in the country.
The BJP's Lucknow metropolitan president Anand Dwivedi was quoted by IANS as saying that a "number of street meetings are being organised" to propagate information about the work done by Rajnath. "Party workers are giving slips to family heads and distributing leaflets about the development works of the Lucknow MP," he added.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh is seeking a third term as Lok Sabha MP from Lucknow. Before contesting his first election from Lucknow in 2014, he had won the Lok Sabha polls from Ghaziabad in 2009.
In 2019, Rajnath Singh defeated Samajwadi Party candidate Poonam Shatrughan Sinha by over 3 lakh votes. In 2014, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, then with the Congress, was his closest rival, and lost by a margin of 2,72,749 votes.
The 2024 general elections are under way in India in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1, to elect the 543 members of the 18th Lok Sabha. The results will be announced on June 4.