Lucknow, Oct 21 (IANS): Once known to be a Congress bastion, the prestigious seat of Lucknow Cantt has now turned into a BJP stronghold.

The BJP has been winning the seat since 1991, barring 2012 when Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congerss won the seat. In 2017 Joshi defected to the BJP and won back the seat for the party.

The seat has been held by upper-caste leaders 11 times since 1957.

There are presently 3.85 lakh voters on this seat out of which 2.09 lakh are male, 24 are from the third gender while the rest are females.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its old warhorse Suresh Tiwari who had won the seat in 1996, 2002 and 2007.

The Bahujan Samaj Party has also put up a Brahmin candidate Arun Dwiwedi while the Samajwadi Party has joined the race for upper caste votes with Major Ashish Chaturvedi as its candidate. The Congress candidate is Dilpreet Singh, a Sikh.

"The seat is a BJP stronghold and the caste factor will not work here. We are going to win the seat," said Suresh Tiwari.