Gonda (Uttar Pradesh): Gonda, a Lok Sabha constituency in central Uttar Pradesh neighbouring the religious city of Ayodhya, will witness an electoral contest mainly between BJP candidate Kirti Vardhan Singh alias Raja Bhaiya and Samajwadi Party's Shreya Verma.
The constituency also witnessed the country's first female Chief Minister, Sucheta Kriplani contest from the seat in 1967 in which she emerged victorious.
In 1963 Kriplani became chief minister of the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh), which she ruled until 1967.
he Gonda seat comprises five Assembly segments including Utraula, Mehnaun, Gonda, Mankapur, and Gaura. The constituency is a general category seat.
In 1952, this area had two parliamentary seats. Chaudhary Haider Hussain won the Gonda North seat, while Shakuntala Nayar of the Hindu Mahasabha won the Gonda West seat.
In 1957, Dinesh Pratap Singh of Congress won the seat. Talking about politics after 1990, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh of BJP won the seat in 1991.
Since then, the BJP has won this seat four times, the SP twice, and the Congress once.
In the 2009 elections, Beni Prasad Verma of Congress won the seat.
The Gonda district, with a population of about 45 lakh, has about 18 lakh voters.
