Samajwadi Party finalises Ravidas Mehrotra as its candidate from Lucknow Lok Sabha seat

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 23 (ANI): Samajwadi Party has finalised veteran party leader Ravidas Mehrotra as its candidate from Lucknow constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, party sources said.
Currently, Ravidas Malhotra is the SP MLA from Lucknow Central. Mehrotra has won the seat with a margin of about 11,000 votes by defeating BJP's Rajnish Kumar Gupta.
Mehrotra had won in 2012 by defeating BJP's Suresh Kumar Srivastava and served as cabinet minister for health and family welfare in the then SP government.
He, however, lost in 2017 to BJP's Brajesh Pathak by a margin of about 5,000 votes.
Ahead of this, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav has emphasised on the winnability factor in seat-sharing talks with Congress in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls and expressed confidence that a way will be found in future talks to seal a pact.
The seat-sharing talks in Uttar Pradesh are crucial for India bloc parties in their goal to take on the BJP collectively in the Lok Sabha polls expected to take place in April-May this year.
Akhilesh Yadav held a meeting in Lucknow with party leaders who included former MPs, former MLAs and former MLCs. He said winnability is a key criterion for decision on seats.
"We and RLD's Jayant Choudhary had a good conversation. We had discussion regarding seven seats...We are also in conversation with Congress. Several meetings have taken place in Delhi. Very soon, more meetings will be held and a way will be found. INDIA alliance should be strong, the question is not of (number of) seats but of winning. On the basis of winnability, we all will take a decision together," he said. (ANI)