Ravi Kishan: Gorakhpur MP To Secure BJP's Stronghold Again (image: twitter.com/ravikishann)

Ravi Kishan (Ravi Kishan Shukla) is a popular Bhojpuri actor and a sitting MP from Uttar Pradesh”s Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency. In the upcoming elections, the BJP is extending confidence in him for a second win.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Ravi Kishan defeated the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate by a whopping margin of 3,01,664 votes. Gorakhpur is known in the electoral arena as the bastion of Yogi Adityanath. He represented the constancy in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. Yogi Adityanath held the seat till 2017. The seat was left vacant when he became the Chief Minister of the State. In the subsequent by-election conducted in 2018, the BJP suffered a massive setback, and Praveen Kumar Nishad won the seat on the SP ticket. In 2019,  Ravi Kishan regained the constituency for BJP.

Gorakhpur”s fate lies in the Brahmin versus Rajput vote bank. Yogi Adityanath”s Rajput identity has favoured the BJP in elections in the past. Meanwhile, Ravi Kishan, a Brahmin, seems to have hold on the Brahmin vote banks.

Ravi Kishan”s political entry was with Congress. In his debut election in 2014, he contested from Uttar Pradesh”s Jaunpur Lok Sabha constituency and came in sixth place. In 2017, he left the grand old party and joined BJP, stating that he had “come to the party that thinks for the poor,” Financial Express reports.

Ravi Kishan is a well-known television personality. He has participated in television shows such as  Bigg Boss, and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (season 5).  Aside from Bhojpuri, he has acted in Hindi, and Telugu films.

In the upcoming polls, SP has fielded Kajal Nishad, for the Gorakhpur seat. She is also coming from the entertainment industry and  has been associated with a number of Bhojpuri films and television serials.