Lucknow
Hours after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh filed his nomination from Lucknow on Tuesday, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha’s wife Poonam Sinha joined the Samajwadi Party as a prelude to her filing her nomination as a SP-BSP-RLD ‘mahagathbandhan’ candidate against the BJP stalwart.A tweet on the Samajwadi Party’s official handle confirmed that Poonam joined the party in the presence of Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav. Later, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav also arrived and had a meeting with her.

Former SP MLA from Lucknow Ravidas Mehrotra confirmed Poonam Sinha will file her nomination on April 18. It may be recalled that on April 6, BJP MP and former Union Minister Shatrughan Sinha had joined the Congress. It is being said that part of the deal was to make the Congress support his wife’s candidature from Lucknow as the alliance candidate.

A few months ago, Shatrughan had met SP president Akhilesh Yadav where the arrangement was reportedly worked out.Speaking to reporters about the likely candidate from Lucknow, Akhilesh had said he would like to showcase his party’s development in the city and will fight on development above the politics of caste and religion.