Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, accompanied by his wife Savitri Singh, cast their votes on Monday in Lucknow during the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Singh, who is the sitting MP and BJP candidate from the Lucknow constituency, appealed to voters nationwide to exercise their vote.
“I want to appeal to all voters in Lucknow and across the country to definitely go and vote today, bringing all your family members with you. This is our appeal,” Singh stated while speaking to the media.
“This time, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) wants to surpass 400 seats,” Singh continued, expressing confidence in the party. Right now, I don’t want to estimate how many seats there will be.
Singh will compete against Samajwadi Party candidate Ravidas Mehrotra in the Lucknow election. Sarwar Malik is the candidate put out by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Following their vote, the pair showed off their inked fingers as a sign of their involvement in the political process.
Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh an MLA from Noida also cast his vote and called on voters to come out in large numbers “I request all voters to vote in record numbers. The more the voting, the stronger our democracy will be. I urge our young voters and Nari Shakti to come forward in large numbers to cast their votes. Do vote for building a self-reliant and developed India.”
The Defence Minister’s appeal to action underscores the significance of voting in the third round of the Lok Sabha elections in deciding the country’s future leadership.
Lucknow is one of Uttar Pradesh’s eighty parliamentary seats. Uttar Pradesh, one of the most populous states in India, has a major influence on the makeup of the Lok Sabha.
The Congress has won the Lucknow seat six times, and the BJP has won eight times. Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, sister of the country’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, became the first MP from this high-profile seat.
The constituency has been a stronghold of the BJP since 1991. It gained prominence, with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee representing it. Vajpayee, after initial setbacks in 1955, 1957 and 1962, won the seat five times.
Rajnath Singh had said, “I tried to fulfill the dreams of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and left no stone unturned for the city’s development,” during an address to a public meeting in Lucknow.
“We are devoted to carrying out Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji’s vision for Lucknow in the future, and we have worked hard to make it a reality. We want to move Lucknow up to the fifth spot in the world rankings, where it is now ranked tenth,” Singh stated.
The Lucknow Lok Sabha seat is divided among five assembly seats. Cantt Assembly seats, as well as Lucknow East, Lucknow West, Lucknow Central, and Lucknow North, are among them. This parliamentary seat has 39.33017 lakh voters in total. Among them are 169 third-gender voters, 18.49960 lakh female voters, and 20.82888 lakh male voters.
The 2019 Lok Sabha election in Lucknow recorded a voter turnout of 54.72 per cent. BJP’s candidate Rajnath Singh received 6,33,026 votes, defeating SP’s Poonam Sinha and Congress’ Acharya Pramod Krishnam, while receiving 56.70 per cent of the total votes.
In the 2014 elections, the BJP’s Rajnath Singh, again with 5,61,106 marginal votes, defeated the Congress’ Rita Bahuguna Joshi, securing 5,61,106 votes and 54.52 per cent of the vote share.
The other constituencies other than Lucknow that are voting today in Uttar Pradesh include Kaiserganj, Amethi, Mohanlalganj, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambhi, Faizabad, Barabanki, Raebareli and Gonda.
Polling for 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh is being held across all seven phases. The counting of votes is scheduled for June 4.