BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is contesting from Varanasi and Vadodara. It may be a surprise to many that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as a young and upcoming activist of the Jana Sangh, contested from three constituencies — Balrampur, Mathura and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh — in the second general election in 1957.
He won from Balrampur, finished runner-up in Lucknow and forfeited his deposit in Mathura. Since then, he has been a regular in elections and set records which are difficult to beat. He is the only political leader to win from six Lok Sabha constituencies from four States.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha 10 times and the last time he fought and won was from Lucknow in the 2004 election. On two occasions, he won from two different seats in two different States. In 1991, he won from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
ADVERTISEMENT
In 1996, he won from Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.