Defeated by Vajpayee in 2004, SP leader remembers the dignified contest

Pitted against Vajpayee in 2004 was Samajwadi Party candidate and an established city-based gynaecologist Dr Madhu Gupta

At the height of the 'India Shining' campaign by the then ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre and in the run-up to the 2004 Lok Sabha election, incumbent Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mascot Atal Bihari Vajpayee was vying for his fifth straight parliamentary victory from Lucknow. 

Pitted against him was Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate and an established city-based gynaecologist Dr Madhu Gupta. Gupta had in the past contested the 2000 Lucknow mayoral election, which was later won by BJP nominee Dr S C Rai, a veteran medical practitioner himself.

As was expected, Vajpayee went on to