Lucknow, April 29 (IANS) Flanked by the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh took out an impressive roadshow on Monday from the BJP state headquarters to the District Collectorate, to file his nomination for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.

Apart from CMs Yogi Adityanath and Pushkar Singh Dhami, he was joined on the chariot by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Ministers Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Maurya, state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary, Rajya Sabha MPs Dinesh Sharma and Sudhansu Trivedi.

The ‘Lucknow Vikas Yatra’ chariot proclaimed that senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh had completed developmental projects worth Rs 54,000 crore in Lucknow.

Union Minister Kaushal Kishore, who is contesting the Mohanlalganj seat in Lucknow, also filed his nomination on Monday.

Meanwhile, huge crowds welcomed the BJP leaders with slogans of “Abki baar, 400 paar”, “Jai Shri Ram” and “Har, Har Mahadev.”

People showered petals on the leaders and CM Adityanath was also seen controlling the traffic through a microphone as he asked the police to make way for an ambulance.

Along the route, various trader organisations felicitated the Union Minister who is seeking his third-consecutive term in Lok Sabha from Lucknow.

Lucknow has been held by the BJP continuously since 1991. Former Prime Minister, late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, won this seat five times since 1991. He was succeeded by Lalji Tandon who won the seat in 2009. Thereafter, Rajnath Singh won the seat in 2014 and 2019.

The senior leader had earlier won the Ghaziabad seat in 2009.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister Rajnath Singh visited the Hanuman temple in Lucknow and offered prayers.

The BJP’s Lucknow Metropolitan President Anand Dwivedi said, “A number of street meetings have been organised to send the message of the work done by the BJP MP in Lucknow. The work of distributing family slips is also being done. Party workers are distributing leaflets about the development works of the Lucknow MP.”

Lucknow will go to the polls along with 13 other constituencies on May 20 in the fifth of the seven-phased 2024 Lok Sabha polls.