Elections 2019: Pankaj Singh said he's confident his father Rajnath Singh will win comfortably
Uttar Pradesh BJP general secretary Pankaj Singh, who has been busy campaigning for his father and Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, said it is not a "tight fight" for the Union Minister who is seeking re-election from this constituency.
"I am very sure the (winning) margin is going to increase this time," Pankaj Singh told NDTV today after he and his father voted at a polling booth in Lucknow.
The alliance between Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party is being seen as a formidable opponent for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in this year's national election.
The Samajwadi Party has never won from Lucknow and has fielded Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, from this seat. She had joined Akhilesh Yadav's party last month.
"There was enthusiasm in 2014, and today there are both enthusiasm and trust because of Modi ji," Pankaj Singh told NDTV.
After casting his vote this morning, Rajnath Singh told reporters that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will become the PM again.
When reporters asked what he felt about the contest in Lucknow, Rajnath Singh replied, "I can't predict anything... I leave the decision to the voters in Lucknow."
Pankaj Singh said as part of the campaign for his father, he highlighted the fast pace of urban development that Lucknow has seen under Rajnath Singh, who despite being occupied with national issues as a busy Home Minister, also kept aside time to meet with people regularly.
"I took to the voters how Lucknow has developed over the years... The people have a close connect with my father; he's very accessible... metro rail, ring road, STPs (sewage treatment plants) and improvements in government schools, people have seen development in the last five years in Lucknow under Rajnath Singh ji and the BJP, who have built a new Lucknow," said Pankaj Singh, who is also a member of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly from Noida, a commercial and residential hub near the national capital.
The BJP has held Lucknow since 1991. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee held it from 1991 to 2009. Rajnath Singh, who won the 2004 Lok Sabha polls from western Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, took over the Lucknow seat in 2014. Mr Singh had defeated Congress's Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is now in the BJP.
The Congress has picked self-proclaimed spiritual guru Acharya Pramod Krishnam as its Lucknow candidate.