Lok Sabha Polls 2024 | Face-off: Jitin Prasada vs Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar

The two are contesting from Pilibhit.

A minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, Jitin Prasada comes from a family with deep roots in the Congress with his father Jitendra Prasada, who had been vice president of the grand old party and had also contested the Congress presidential poll against Sonia Gandhi.

Jitin, who is an MBA and had been considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi, switched over to the BJP in 2021 and was inducted into the UP ministry soon after.

His stature within the saffron has grown ever since and the party replaced its firebrand leader Varun Gandhi with Jitin in the high-profile Pilibhit LS constituency.

Considered to be a prominent OBC leader, Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar had started his electoral journey from the BJP in n1991 but later on joined the SP and had been a member of the UP assembly thrice.

He had also contested against senior BJP leader Santosh Gangwar from Bareilly in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls but lost. Hailing from the electorally influential ‘Kurmi’ community, Gangwar will take Jitin Prasad in Pilibhit. The contest in Pilibhit has become interesting as Varun Gandhi is not in the fray this time.

Keep up with the Lok Sabha 2024 elections here