The fight for the Sarojninagar Assembly seat of Awadh region has become a contest to watch out for with reputation of many stalwarts at stake. Anurag Yadav, brother of Dharmendra Yadav, is locked in a five-cornered contest with Swati Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Shankar Singh (Shankari) of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Sharda Pratap Shukla of the Rashtriya lok Dal and Rudra Daman Singh (Independent).
Sarojninagar seat, comprising rural as well as urban areas and a segment of Mohanlalganj lok Sabha constituency, is the biggest constituency of the State Capital with 4,96,834 voters, out of which 2,27,350 are women.
Anurag Yadav, who got the SP ticket after Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav denied ticket to sitting MlA and a Minister Sharda Pratap Shukla, is trying to cash in on Akhilesh’s name and work and his campaigning also revolves around his cousin’s name. However, Sharda seems to be standing no chance but he will surely hurt Anurag’s chance.
Swati Singh, who shot to limelight when she took on Mayawati after BSP chief’s controversial remarks about her daughter, being the main woman candidate in the fray, stands a good chance despite a bad performance by BJP in the previous elections.
In 2012 polls, BJP’s Virendra Tiwari finished fourth with mere 12 per cent votes, much less than Independent candidate Rudra Daman Singh. This time Rudra was seeking the BJP ticket but he was overlooked by the party in favour of Swati. Keeping in mind Rudra’s popularity in the ‘Thakur’ belt which largely is a part of rural area of the constituency, Swati is depending on urban votes and is campaigning extensively to woo the voters of lucknow Municipal Corporation’s ward Nos. 1, 2, 7, 12 and 14.
Sarojninagar constituency has always seen a contest between SP and BSP and in the previous election the SP won the seat from the BSP.
Shiv Shankar Singh garnered over 59,000 votes, losing the battle to Sharda by around 8,000 votes. In 2012 elections, Singh was announced BSP candidate very late and it is said this was one of the reasons for his defeat. With the solid BSP vote bank behind him and Sharda and Rudra all set to play spoilsport for SP and BJP respectively, Shankari stands a good chance of winning back the seat for the BSP. Mohanlalganj constituency is a reserved seat and the SP has fielded Ambrish Singh Pushkar, denying the ticket to its sitting MlA Chandra Rawat.
Three-time MlA from this seat, RK Chaudhary, is contesting as an independent and is supported by the BJP while Ram Bahadur is contesting on BSP ticket.