Lucknow: Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned politician Shatrugan Sinha will be contesting against Union Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow parliamentary constituency on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s support.

The SP, which got Lucknow in its kitty under the BSP-SP-RLD alliance seat distribution, had been busy finding a suitable candidate to give a tough fight to Singh. Earlier, Shatrughan Sinha had met with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to discuss the candidature of his wife. The Patna Sahib BJP MP Sinha had recently switched camps and is now contesting from there on a Congress ticket.

According to sources, the Congress is likely to extend support to Sinha’s candidature, with the aim to dent BJP’s votes and keep Singh confined to his constituency. The grand old party’s decision to not field any candidate from the state capital paves way for a one-on-one face-off between Singh and Poonam Sinha.

There are four lakh Kayastha voters and 1.3 lakh Sindhi voters in Lucknow, apart from 3.5 lakh Muslims. The fact that Poonam Sinha is a Sindhi while her husband Shatrughan Sinha is a Kayastha is expected to give a major push to her candidature.

She is likely to file her nomination on April 18, which also the last day of nomination for the fifth phase of polling, scheduled for May 6.

The Lucknow parliamentary seat is considered to be a BJP bastion and has been its stronghold since the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era. After Vajpayee, this seat was won by Lalji Tandon and then by Singh in 2014.