Lucknow: One major infrastructure push that the city of Lucknow has got in the last five years is the arrival of the Metro rail network. Many in the city credit the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav-government in Uttar Pradesh for this, but Akhilesh Yadav and his Samajwadi Party don’t seem to be the choice of Lucknow residents as they vote for the Lok Sabha polls on 6 May.
The mood of the city, as well as the electoral arithmetic, clearly seems to be in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has occupied this prestigious constituency for seven consecutive times since 1991. The legacy of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was elected five times from Lucknow, continues as its sitting MP and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is headed for a comfortable victory.
The image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national issues like internal security, fight against terrorism and economic reforms have taken the centerstage in Lucknow and the BJP has got thumbs up from the voters. Jagat Prakash, a city-based trader, said: “We will be voting for a stable and decisive government at the Centre and Narendra Modi has successfully provided such a government in the last five years. Economic reforms like demonetisation and GST could become possible only because there was a decisive government in the country.”
A college-goer at an eatery in Lucknow’s commercial hub of Hazratganj said: “We understand that the Metro rail and some other highway and expressways were built in the tenure of Akhilesh Yadav, but it is a fact that the SP-BSP alliance is nowhere close to forming the government. Voting for the BJP will only make Prime Minister Modi stronger.”
Political equations and previous election results also indicate that the BJP will face no major hurdle in Lucknow. Bhahmins and Baniya comprise the majority of votes in Lucknow and they are considered traditional voters of the BJP. This is followed by nearly 21% of Muslim voters, mostly comprising the Shia Muslims. Previous election results show that the Shias have voted en masse for the BJP and thus making the task easier. Mohammad Ismail, an old-timer in the city, said: “Our relationship with the BJP was built by Vajpayeeji and this continues even today. He took all religions and communities together and worked for all.”
On the other hand, a clear-cut division in the Opposition votes is pretty evident with fight between the Congress and Samajwadi Party candidates in the fray. The Samajwadi Party and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have never tasted victory in Lucknow and this time, the alliance candidate, Poonam Sinha, the wife of Shatrughan Sinha, is unlikely to make an impact on poll results. The Congress has pitted Acharya Pramod Krishnam, a largely unknown candidate in Lucknow which has remained a BJP bastion. To campaign for his wife, Shatrughan Sinha also held a road show in the city, but failed to garner much support as many BJP loyalists were miffed over him quitting the BJP to join Congress.
Demographically, the Lucknow parliamentary constituency is a completely urban seat and it is essentially for this reason that the BJP has remained a favourite here since 1991. After the exit of Vajpayee from electoral politics, the BJP fielded Lalji Tandon from this seat in 2009 and people reposed their faith in the saffron party. In 2014, the BJP fielded its heavyweight Rajnath Singh who secured a big win against Congress candidate Rita Bahuguna.
There are five Assembly segments—Lucknow West, Lucknow North, Lucknow East, Lucknow Central and Lucknow Cantonment—under the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency and each of these five seats are occupied by the BJP.