Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency: Candidates for 2019 LS poll, past results, all updates

One of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Sultanpur is predominantly a rural constituency where agriculture is the primary profession. The sitting MP of Sultanpur is BJP's Varun Gandhi who won the seat in 2014 with a margin of more than 1.78 lakh votes. He is, however, not contesting from here this time and his mother Maneka Gandhi is the BJP candidate in Sultanpur. 

Maneka Gandhi, Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development was elected from Pilibhit parliamentary constituency and her son from Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 general elections. They have swapped the constituencies this time. 

Dr Sanjay Sinh of the Congress, who was the Sultanpur MP from 2009-14, is the Congress candidate while the BSP has fielded Chandra Bhadra Singh alias Sonu as 'Mahagathbandhan' candidate. 

The seat was won by Mohammad Tahir of the BSP in 2004 was defeated by Sinh in 2009. However, Sinh did not contest the 2014 election and instead his wife Ameeta Sinh was fielded by the Congress. With little more than 41,000 votes, she was at the fourth position behind Varun Gandhi, BSP's Pawan Pandey and SP's Shakeel Ahmed.

This time, Sultanpur has been at the centre of controversy with statements by both Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun. After filing her nomination papers for the Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat last month, BJP candidate ensured her support to the locals "fight" to rename Sultanpur as Kushbhavanpur.

Later, she was censured by the Election Commission for her controversial remarks saying that Muslims should vote for her as they will need her once the Lok Sabha elections are over.

Last week, her son Varun Gandhi asked the people not to fear any "Monu or Sonu" as these are people who used to tie his shoelaces. 

BSP candidate Chandra Bhadra Singh alias Sonu, a local strongman, was in the BJP and a strong supporter of Varun Gandhi but is now BSP's candidate. 

As per 2014 data, Sultanpur parliamentary constituency has 9.64 lakh voters. The constituency comprises five assembly segments: Isauli Sultanpur, Sultanpur Sadar, Lambhua and Kadipur (SC).

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.