Pratapgarh Lok Sabha Constituency: Candidates for 2019 LS poll, past results, all updates

One of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Pratapgarh in eastern UP has been won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) only once in 1998 when Ram Vilas Vedanti secured a victory from here. 

In 2014, the seat went to BJP ally Apna Dal and Kuwar Harivansh Singh won with a margin of 1.68 lakh votes. The party, however, later split and Singh remained loyal to Krishna Patel, wife of Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel. Anupriya Patel, one of the two party MPs, formed her own party Apna Dal (S) and was made a Union Minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

This time, the BJP is contesting the seat and has fielded Apna Dal (S) MLA Sangam Lal Gupta. The BSP has fielded Ashok Kumar Tripathi as 'Mahagathbandhan' candidate. 

Rajkumari Ratna Singh, a three-time Congress MP from 1996-1998, 1999-2004 and 2009-14, has again been fielded by the party. She is the erstwhile princess of Kalakankar state in Pratapgarh. This time, Singh has also got the support of Prashuram Sena, an organisation with a considerable following in the area.

The Congress candidate has raised the issue of law and order situation in the district. Speaking to ANI, Ratna Singh said on Tuesday, "People are getting ransom calls and murders are happening in the city. There is no control on crimes in the region."

Akshay Pratap Singh, a former Samajwadi Party MP from the seat (2009-2004), is also contesting on a ticket of Jansatta Dal, a party founded by local strongman Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya. 

Rajkumari and Raja-backed candidate are said to be in a direct fight in the Pratapgarh Lok Sabha Constituency.

The Pratapgarh Lok Sabha seat consists of five assembly constituencies namely Raniganj, Rampur Khas, Vishwanathganj, Patti and Pratapgarh.

UP is facing a triangular battle between the BJP, the Congress and BSP-SP-RLD alliance. Under the alliance's seat-sharing formula, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on 38 Lok Sabha seats of the total 80 seats, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party on 37 seats and the Chaudhary Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on three seats. The alliance has left two for Congress' Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Rahul Gandhi (Amethi). 

In sixth phase of Lok Sabha polling, 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh - Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr and Bhadohi - are going for polls.

Of these seats, 13 were won by the BJP in 2014 elections with only Azamgarh going to the Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. 

The counting of votes of the Lok Sabha election 2019 will be conducted on May 23.