New winners in UP: Young, educated & raring to go

BILKULONLINE

Lucknow, June 5: Half a dozen winners in the Lok Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh are a welcome change from the stereotyped image of a politician.

They are well educated, speak fluent English, hold degrees from reputed institutions and have refreshing views on their role as new parliamentarians. 

Pushpendra Saroj, at 25, is perhaps the youngest Lok Sabha member. Armed with degrees in accounting and management from Queen Mary University of London, he contested and won from Kaushambhi on a Samajwadi Party ticket with a margin of 1.03 lakh votes. He defeated two-term BJP MP Vinod Sonkar. His father Inderjit Saroj is a member of the UP Assembly. “I want to focus on the development of my constituency and will make a conscious effort not to get entangled in local politics,” he said after winning the polls.

Similarly, Iqra Hasan of the Samajwadi Party won the Kairana seat with a margin of 69,116 votes. The 27-year-old has her postgraduate degree in international law from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. “My priority will be to work for my constituency, especially women, who are still backward and lack adequate educational facilities,” she said. Priya Saroj, a 25-year-old Supreme Court lawyer, has also made a successful electoral debut on an SP ticket, winning the Machhlishahr seat by 35,850 votes. She is the daughter of former MP Tufani Saroj.

Anand Gond, fielded by the BJP from Bahraich, holds degrees in MBA, Ph.D. He has won his seat by 64,227 votes and is the son of outgoing MP Akshaywar Lal Gond. Ujjwal Raman Singh, who won the Allahabad seat on a Congress ticket, holds degrees from St. Stephens and Delhi University Law School. He won by 58,795 votes. Shashank Mani Tripathi, who won on a BJP ticket from Deoria, is a BTech from IIT Delhi and has a degree in MBA from IMD Lausanne. He secured a win by 34,842 votes.