A day after her induction into the party fold, Poonam Sinha, wife of Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha, was fielded by Samajwadi Party from Lucknow parliamentary constituency. She will be facing Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the sitting MP from the seat which has voted for the BJP since 1991.
The decision to field Poonam Sinha from Lucknow was announced by party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Poonam Sinha joined the SP on Tuesday, the same day Singh filed his nomination papers in Lucknow. Her decision to join Yadav’s party comes days after Shatrughan Sinha joined the Congress.
Interestingly the Congress is not part of the alliance formed by SP-BSP-RLD in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.
The 69-year-old Sinha was inducted into the party fold by Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav, who is the wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Party leaders had on Tuesday said that she will be contesting from Lucknow while requesting the Congress not to field a candidate from the seat.
“Poonam Sinha ji (wife of Shatrughan Sinha) will be the SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow. She will file nomination on 18 April. We appeal to the Congress that do not field your candidate from here so that BJP can be defeated,” SP leader Ravidas Mehrotra was quoted as saying by ANI.
Shatrughan Sinha had recently quit the BJP to join Congress. He will take on Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Bihar’s Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency.