Congress candidate Jaiswal seeks blessings for victory

Kanpur: Former Union coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal, who has been declared Congress candidate from Kanpur parliamentary seat for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, with an aim to sway electorate, visited religious shrines of different faiths on Sunday and sought blessings by offering prayers. He offered prayers at temples, maqbara, church and gurudwara at various parts of the city.
Jaiswal visited the famous Hanuman temple in Panki and performed puja. He then went to Baradevi temple in Kidwai Nagar. After praying at gurudwara in Gumti area, he left for a church located near Bara Chauraha area of the city. Finally, he went to the maqbara of renowned saint Makhdoom Shah Baba in Jajmau area of Chakeri and Siddhnath templelocated at the banks of Ganga.

UP Congress Committee member, Shailendra Dikshit, who accompanied Jaiswal, said, the former minister has vowed to visit the religious shrines prior to kickstarting his election campaign. “My wish is to win Kanpur Lok Sabha seat, and see our party emerge as the single largest party after Lok Sabha polls. Our party is committed to maintain communal harmony across the country”, Jaiswal said. Jaiswal had served the city as mayor in 1989. Later, he contested and won the Lok Sabha election in 1999 from Kanpur. He also won from this seat in 2004 and 2009 for the second and third time respectively.

He was minister of state for home affairs in 2004 and in 2009, he was elevated as minister of state (independent charge) holding dual charges of ministry of coal and ministry of statistics and programme implementation. He lost his seat to BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi in 2014 Lok Sabha election.