Actor Poonam Sinha has joined the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Poonam Sinha, the wife of Shatrughan Sinha, joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of party leader Dimple Yadav on Tuesday (April 16).

The Samajwadi Party has confirmed she will be fielded against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow. She will file her nomination from the Lucknow constituency on April 18.

On April 6, Shatrughan Sinha joined the Congress. He was earlier with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Bihar's Patna Sahib on a Congress ticket.

Ravidas Mehrotra from SP said, "Poonam Sinha ji will be the SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow. She will file nomination on April 18. We appeal to the Congress that do not field your candidate from here so that BJP can be defeated."

Congress is unlikely to field a candidate against Poonam Sinha.

The decision to field Poonam Sinha as the joint opposition candidate against Rajnath Singh is seen as an attempt by the opposition parties to keep the Union Home Minister confined to his constituency.

Earlier, a leader of the SP said, "There are four lakh Kayastha voters and 1.3 lakh Sindhi voters in Lucknow, apart from 3.5 lakh Muslims. This will give a major push to her candidature."

Poonam Sinha is a Sindhi while her husband Shatrughan Sinha is a Kayastha.

Rajnath Singh had won the Lucknow seat in 2014 garnering 55.7 per cent of the total 10,06,483 votes polled. He had won in all the five assembly segments of the constituency.