Kajal Nishad, The Star Candidate From Gorakhpur (Image: X/@kajalnishad)
Bhojpuri actress Kajal Nishad is the Samajwadi Party candidate from the Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Kajal Nishad, the former Congress leader, has been featured in a number of Bhojpuri films and television serials.
The popular actress has been active in UP politics for a long time. In 2012, Kajal Nishad contested assembly polls from Gorakhpur Rural on Congress ticket. However, Bharatiya Janata Party”s Vijay Bahadur Yadav defeated the Congress candidate by winning 58,849 votes. Notably, in February 2012, Kajal Nishad was reportedly attacked by supporters of a rival party. According to an India Today report, the actress and over a dozen of her supporters sustained injuries, and their vehicles were also damaged in that incident.
In 2021, Kajal Nishad quit Congress and joined the Samajwadi Party. On that occasion, the actress also claimed that, even after working hard for the party, she was sidelined. In the 2022 UP Assembly polls, Kajal Nishad contested on the SP ticket from the Campierganj seat of Gorakhpur. However, BJP candidate Fateh Bahadur Singh won the constituency by defeating Kajal Nishad with a margin of 42656 votes. The Bhojpuri actress managed to secure only 79,376 votes.
Kajal Nishad also contested as SP candidate in the Gorakhpur Mayoral elections in 2023. BJP”s Mangalesh Srivastav defeated Kajal Nishad by around 67,00 votes at that time. After the announcement of the final results, Kajal Nishad alleged electoral malpractice and also demanded a recount. According to a Hindustan Times report, Kajal Nishad was born in Kutch, Gujarat, and her family resides in Mumbai.
Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency, considered a stronghold of the BJP, comprises five legislative Legislative Assembly segments. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Ravi Kishan of the BJP party won the seat with 7,15,010 votes. On the other hand, the SP candidate managed to get only 4,14,340 votes. It is worth mentioning that UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also served as the MP for Gorakhpur for five consecutive terms.
