Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visits his Lucknow parliamentary constituency

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday visited his constituency, Lucknow, where he said that BJP's big win in the national election shows the party's vote share increased in Uttar Pradesh despite the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in the state.

"After SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, senior leaders used to think, we (BJP) will only get 10-15 seats and not 72. But even after staying in power for five years, there was no anti-incumbency. On the contrary, there was pro-incumbency. BJP's vote share increased," Rajnath Singh said.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to fulfil the basic necessities of people. "For this, the government has already initiated several mega projects," he said.

At the event, he praised the country's soldiers. "Our soldiers carried out a surgical strike and then conducted multiple air strikes in Balakot, which tells the world that India is a strong country, not a weak one."

Rajnath Singh was re-elected to parliament from Lucknow. He retained the Lucknow seat by defeating his nearest rival Poonam Shatrughan Sinha by over 3.4 lakh votes. In 2014, he had defeated the then Congress candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi by a margin of 27,2749 votes.