Sangam Lal Gupta: Sitting BJP MP To Retain Pratapgarh (image: facebook.com/sangamlalguptaofficial/)

Sangam Lal Gupta is a sitting MP and BJP candidate representing Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh parliamentary constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In 2021, he was also promoted as a National General Secretary of BJP OBC Morcha.

He was with the BJP during the 2017 Assembly elections, but when the Pratapgarh Sadar seat went to Apna Dal SK as part of the alliance, Gupta soon joined Apna Dal (Sonelal), pocketed the Assembly ticket, and won. Thus, his political debut began in 2017, when he was elected as a legislator representing Pratapgarh Vidhan Sabha constituency. He then later switched over to the BJP.

In the 2019 general elections, Sangam Lal Gupta was again brought to the BJP and he won the Pratapgarh seat by defeating BSP candidate Ashok Kumar Tripathi for a margin of 1,17,752 votes. In the previous election also, the seat remained with BJP-Apna Dal alliance, and Apna Dal”s Harivansh Singh emerged winner at that time. Pratapgarh Lok Sabha Constituency belonged to Pratapgarh district and it falls under General Category seat.

Sangam Lal Gupta is primarily a businessman. A known builder in Pratapgarh, he has extended construction activites to Mumbai and Gujarat as well. Besides, he also runs a school named Sangam International in Katramedaniganj, Pratapgarh.

Last year, Sangam Lal Gupta hit headlines for his request to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to change the name of Uttar Pradesh”s capital city Lucknow to ‘Lakhanpur’ or ‘Laxmanpur’. In the letter to Shah, he stated that since Lord Ram had gifted the city to his brother and King of Ayodhya Laxman in the Treta Yug, the name should be changed.