Jitin Prasada, who switched to the BJP from the Congress three years ago, is the BJP candidate from the Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency. He succeeded Varun Gandhi. Mr Prasada will face Samajwadi Party’s Bhagwat Saran Gangwar, a five-time MLA from Nawabganj, and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Anis Ahmed Khan.
Here are some facts about Jitin Prasada:
– Jitin Prasada was born on November 29, 1973 in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to senior Congress leader Jitendra Prasada and his mother It’s Kanta Prasada. He attended Doon School and later pursued a commerce degree at Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. He holds an MBA from the International Institute of Management, New Delhi.
– Jitin Prasada is a prominent Brahmin leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party who started his political career with the Indian Youth Congress. He contested elections for the first time in 2004 and won from the Shahjahanpur seat earlier held by his father Jitendra Prasada.
– Jitin Prasada was appointed Minister of State for Steel during his first term as an MP, becoming one of the youngest ministers in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. After the Shahjahanpur seat was delimited in the 2009 polls, he turned to Dhaulala. He defeated Bahujan Samaj Party’s Rajesh Kumar Singh by over 1.80 lakh votes.
– Jitin Prasada was once considered a close aide of Rahul Gandhi but he lost three elections – the 2014 and 2019 general elections and the 2017 UP parliamentary vote. Ahead of Bengal’s 2021 assembly polls, Mr Prasada was appointed to head the party’s campaign in the state. The Congress party performed very poorly and failed to win even a single seat.
– In June 2021, he left the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Soon after joining the BJP, Jitin Prasada said: “I started feeling like I was in a party surrounded by politics. I started feeling like I couldn’t contribute or work for the people.”
