The Samajwadi Party(SP) has fielded Abhishek Mishra, former Minister and its prominent Brahmin face, to take on Rajeshwar Singh, the former joint director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) who joined the BJP after voluntary retirement, in Sarojini Nagar seat in Lucknow.
Mr. Mishra had lost the last election from the Lucknow North seat, from where he is also campaigning this election.Over the last couple of years, he has been active in pushing the narrative over Lord Parshuram to attract the Brahmin community to the party.
Mr. Mishra, an SP national secretary, is not the only one to change constituency. Senior OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who rebelled against the BJP to join the SP, is contesting from Fazilnagar seat in Kushinagar this time rather than Padrauna from where he is the sitting MLA.
The shift of R.P.N Singh, who holds clout in Padrauna, from the Congress to the BJP may have altered the caste equation for Mr. Swami Prasad Maurya. The SP has meanwhile fielded Pallavi Patel, the sister of Union Minister Anupriya Patel, against BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in Sirathu in Kaushambi.
Mr. Keshav Prasad Maurya was fielded by the BJP after dropping a sitting MLA Sheetla Prasad. By fielding Ms. Patel, a Kurmi and daughter of the Krishna Patel, president of the Apna Dal Kameravadi, the SP is trying to leverage that factor.
In Sarojini Nagar, Mr. Rajeshwar Singh’s candidature came at the cost of sitting MLA Swati Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Women’s Welfare, Child Development & Nutrition.
Ms. Singh and her husband Daya Shankar Singh, a BJP vice-president in Uttar Pradesh, had both staked claim to the seat this time in an embarrassing situation for the party.In 2016, Mr. Daya Shankar Singh had grabbed attention for his sexist remarks made against BSP chief Mayawati. However, while the BSP tried to take political mileage out of the situation, the BJP swiftly counter-attacked by magnifying the alleged sexist language used by BSP workers against his wife during a protest in Lucknow.
Following the controversy, Mr. Daya Shankar Singh slipped into the shadows till the 2017 election but his wife contested from Sarojini Nagar and won. She then won herself a ministerial berth in the Adityanath-government
