Lady luck fails to smile on two Lko firebrand women candidates
Samajwadi Party’s candidate Pooja Shukla lost to Dr Neeraj Bora from Lucknow North by 33,985 votes, and Congress candidate Sadaf Jafar, who was running from Lucknow Central, finished fourth with just 29,01 votes.
The two firebrand women candidates, who contested from Lucknow assembly constituencies, lost in their maiden elections. Samajwadi Party’s candidate, Pooja Shukla, lost to BJP’s Dr Neeraj Bora from Lucknow North by a margin of 33,985 votes, while Congress candidate Sadaf Jafar, who was in the fray from Lucknow Central, finished fourth polling just 2901 votes.
Veteran Samajwadi Party leader Ravidas Mehrotra won the Lucknow Central seat with 1,03,366 votes, defeating his nearest rival BJP’s Rajneesh Kumar Gupta, who got 92,545 votes.
The SP had fielded Shukla, who shot to fame overnight for waving the black flag at chief minister Yogi Adityanath after stopping his motorcade in June 2017. Shukla polled 1,04,527 votes, while Dr Neeraj Bora polled 1,38,512.
Five years ago, Pooja Shukla, a student activist, shot to fame overnight when she along with several other student protesters stopped Yogi Adityanath’s cavalcade on the university road to protest fee hike. She was sent to jail by the BJP government and later also participated in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in January 2020.
For all of this, Samajwadi Party rewarded her with a party ticket from Lucknow North. For Shukla, SP shifted former minister Abhishek Mishra, who was the party candidate from this seat. Mishra had, earlier, won from this seat in 2012 but lost in the 2017 assembly elections.
Likewise, social activist, Sadaf Jafar, a Congress candidate from Lucknow Central, finished fourth. She shot to fame during the protest against the new citizenship law in December 2019. She was the only woman who was arrested and sent to jail.