BK Singh
Allahabad which once used to churn out prime minister’s could not even get a ministerial berth in the newly formed union cabinet.
The last MP to get place in the union cabinet was Dr Murli Manohar Joshi who became minister during the days of late Atal Behari Bajpai. Dr Joshi remained in the union cabinet till 2004.
He had much say in the central government. He is credited with the honour of getting central status for Allahabad University, the IIIT and the new Yamuna bridge.
Out of the two parliamentary seats Neeraj Tripathi lost the Allahabad parliamentary seat to the congress candidate Ujjwal Raman Singh while Praveen Patel could barely manage to save the Phulpur seat. He won by a thin margin.
No MP from Allahabad could get a ministry during the past twenty year history.
In 2019 Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi had won the Allahabad parliamentary seat and Keshari Devi Patel had registered victory on Phulpur seat but none of them could be included in the cabinent. Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi had served as tourism minister in the state cabinet earlier.
Vinod Sonkar had represented the neighbouring Kaushambi seat twice in 2014 and then again in 2019 but he too was not accomodated in the cabinet.
All eyes were fixed on TV screens as PM Narendra Modi was being sworn in as PM for the third consecutive term. Hopes here went high after some of the newly elected MPs were accomodated in the new cabinet but there was sadness on faces here when all their hopes were belied.
The first PM of India Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had won his first election from Phulpur parliamentary seat. Late PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri went to parliament from Allahabad seat.
A host of big leaders former PM VP Singh, Vijay Luxmi Pandit, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, Kamla Bahuguna, Janeshwar Misra and Amitabh Bachchan have represented Allahabad and Phulpur parliamentary seats.
- But during the past two decades these two parliamentary seats appear to have lost the glory they carried with them.
