The Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency has been the favourite of celebrities to try their luck to reach the parliament, though the voters have dashes their hopes by electing political stalwarts.
This time too, actor Poonam Sinha, wife actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha and mother of actor Sonakshi Sinha is in the fray as the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party (SP-BSP) alliance candidate against union home minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajnath Singh.
In the past, the Samajwadi Party has fielded a number of celebrities from Lucknow.
In 1996, actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar contested Lok Sabha election on its ticket against BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who represented Lucknow for consecutive five terms.
Raj Babbar secured 2.76 lakh votes (36.55%) and lost by more than one lakh votes.
In 1998, the SP fielded filmmaker Muzaffar Ali against Vajpayee.
Ali polled 2.15 lakh votes and lost by a margin of over 2 lakh votes.
Again in 2009, the party fielded actor Nafisa Ali against senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon. Ali secured 61,457 votes losing by a margin of 1.40 lakh votes.
{{/usCountry}}Again in 2009, the party fielded actor Nafisa Ali against senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon. Ali secured 61,457 votes losing by a margin of 1.40 lakh votes.
{{/usCountry}}In 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded actor Javed Jaffrey who secured 41,429 votes (4%) and lost to BJP stalwart Rajnath Singh.