“Congress president Shri Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the candidature of Shri Mukesh Singh Chauhan as the Congress candidate for the ensuing by-election to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh from 173-Lucknow East Constituency,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said in a statement.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Ashutosh Tandon on November 9, 2023, at the age of 63. A three-time MLA from the seat, Tandon was a Cabinet minister in the first government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
A corporator of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation, Chauhan currently is a general secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Congress.
Before this, he was associated with the Lucknow City unit of the Congress and has also held the post of the spokesperson of the Uttar Pradesh Congress.
State Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi said party workers were elated over the announcement of Chauhan’s name as the candidate for the bypoll from the Lucknow East Assembly constituency. Earlier in March, the Samajwadi Party declared three candidates for the bypolls, which will be held on four assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh along with the Lok Sabha elections. The SP declared Avadhesh Kumar Verma as its candidate from the Dadraul Assembly constituency, Rakesh Yadav from the Gainsari Assembly constituency and Vijay Singh Gond from the Duddhi Assembly constituency.
It did not declare any candidate for the Lucknow East assembly constituency.
