Sushma Kharakwal

Sushma Kharakwal is an Indian politician from Uttar Pradesh. She is currently serving as the mayor of Lucknow Municipal Corporation from 26 May 2023.^[1][2][3]

She won the mayoral elections held in May 2023 representing the Bharatiya Janata Party which held the post for over three decades.^[4][5]

Kharakwal is from Uttarakhand but settled in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She is a Pahadi Brahmin and her husband, Prem Kharakwal, is a retired havaldar from Indian army. Together, they have two sons, Manish and Mayank. She did her graduation at a college affiliated with Srinagar Garhwal University, Uttarakhand.^[6] She is a BJP worker for 30 years.^[7] She served as the president of the Avadh region Mahila Morcha and was also a member of the Sainik Welfare Board and Railway Users Advisory Committee.^[8]

Kharakwal represented the BJP and won the mayoral election defeating her nearest rival Vandana Mishra of the Samajwadi Party by a margin of 20, 414 votes. She polled 335,035 votes. She won in 80 of the 110 wards.^[9] Due to differences with the BJP corporators, she arranged a Holi get together in March 2025 to reconcile with her own party corporators.^[10]

In January 2025, she made a controversial statement that 2 lakh Bangladeshis have entered Lucknow. Congress councillor Mukesh Singh Chauhan questioned her statement and demanded clarity on certain points.^[11] In August 2024, she allegedly threatened to throw the officials of the Municipal Corporation into the dirty drains, if they failed to keep them clean.^[12] In August 2023, she allegedly attempted to enter the ICU of a private hospital without removing her foot wear and entered into an argument with the hospital staff. Later, the hospital denied that such an incident took place.^[13]