The Congress on Tuesday announced the name of Acharya Pramod Krishnan as its candidate from Lucknow Lok Sabha seat against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Earlier, there were speculations that the Congress would leave the Lucknow parliamentary seat for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance to give a tough fight to Rajnath Singh in the BJP bastion.
After actor-turned-politician and parliamentarian Shatrughan Sinha’s wife Poonam Sinha joined the SP on Tuesday and it became apparent that she would be fielded from Lucknow, it was believed that the Congress could support the alliance candidate to defeat the BJP in its stronghold.
“Lucknow has always been a Congress stronghold despite losing every time to BJP since Atal Bihari Vajpayee came here. Despite being defeated by BJP in the previous election, the Congress had polled about three lakh votes in Lucknow,” a Congress leader said.