Kirti Vardhan Singh: BJP MP Aiming For A Hat-Trick Win From Gonda (image: twitter.com/KVSinghMPGonda)

BJP leader Kirti Vardhan Singh is commonly known by the name Raja Bhaiya. In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, he is looking for his hat-trick win as a BJP candidate.

Earlier, as a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate, he represented Gonda Lok Sabha consistency twice; 1998 and 2004. In 2014, Kirti Vardhan Singh switched over to BJP, and the general elections in the year, Kirti Vardhan Singh defeated SP rival Nandita Shukla by a margin of 1,60,416 votes. In 2019 elections, Kirti Vardhan Singh retained the seat by defeating SP candidate, Vinod Kumar alias Pandit Singh by a margin of 1,66,360 votes.

Kirti Vardhan Singh comes from a political family; his father Kunwar Anand Singh, served as an Agriculture Minister in the SP government.

In February this year, on the direction of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, a criminal case was lodged against 12 persons, including Gonda MP and two police inspectors for illegal occupation of a Gurdwara building.

As the sitting Gonda MP is looking for a third consecutive win, he is facing challenge from the SP candidate, Shreya Verma. She is the daughter of former cabinet minister Rakesh Verma and granddaughter of former Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma. Beni Prasad Verma represented Gonda seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections under Congress ticket.

Gonda Lok Sabha constituency consists of five assembly segments including Utraula, Mankapur, Gonda Sadar, Mehnaun, and Gaura. Considering the caste equations in the constituency, there are over 2 lakh Brahmin votes and Thakur votes respectively. Aside from this, there are close to three and a half lakh Muslim voters and more than two and a half lakh Kurmi voters in this constituency. Besides, around 2.5 lakh Dalit voters also plays significant influence in the election.