Mayoral candidates in Lucknow visit places of worship to seek blessings

BJP candidate Sushma Kharakwal visited two churches, a temple and a gurudwara on Sunday while AAP candidate Anju Bhatt has visited Gulachin temple, Hanuman Setu, and Gurudwara, Lajpat Nagar to seek blessings

LUCKNOW Ahead of the urban local bodies’ (ULB) polls, mayoral candidates of major parties intensified their campaigns and visited places of worship to seek God’s blessings and interact with voters.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav waves to the crowd while traveling in the Lucknow metro as part of the campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Urban Local Body Elections, in Lucknow on Monday. (ANI Photo)

“Candidates have the right to visit religious places for seeking blessings of deities. SP is known for respecting every religion. Our party president Akhilesh Yadav was present at Eidgah during Eid. Today, he embarked on a Lucknow Metro journey to campaign for the civic polls. Metro train is not less than a modern temple for us because it was constructed by our party,” said Ashutosh Varma, spokesperson, Samajwadi Party.

SP’s mayoral candidate Vandana Mishra had so far visited the historic Mankameshwar temple, Hanuman Setu temple, Gurudwara (Naka Hindola), Aishbagh Eidgah, Teelewali Masjid, St Joseph’s Cathedral and other churches to seek blessings of the Almighty. She also undertook the Metro journey with party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday.

BJP’s mayoral candidate Sushma Kharakwal visited two churches, a temple and a gurudwara on Sunday to interact with voters.

“I believe in every religion…so I visit temples, gurudwaras, mosques and churches with the same devotion. I am contesting for every community. If elected, I will be a mayor of every Lucknowite,” she said.

Meanwhile, Congress candidate Sangeeta Jaiswal said, “I respect every religion and I am contesting for every community. That’s why I have gone to temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches.”

Satbir Singh ‘Raju’, spokesperson of BJP Cantt, said: “BJP believes in Sarvdharma Sambhav and that’s why our candidates visited gurudwara, temple and church during campaigning.”

Anju Bhatt, mayoral candidate of Aam Aadmi Party, had so far visited Gulachin temple in Vikas Nagar, Hanuman Setu, and Gurudwara, Lajpat Nagar to seek blessings of God. “For God, everyone is equal, so I visit religious places of all faiths,” she said.