BJP retains Ghaziabad seat, trounces SP candidate by 69,351 votes

The Ghaziabad assembly seat fell vacant after sitting MLA Atul Garg was elected a Lok Sabha member in the elections held earlier this year

Ghaziabad

BJP candidate Sanjeev Sharma secured 96,946 votes while the runner up candidate secured 27,595 votes. Others lost their deposit. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained the Ghaziabad assembly seat, as Sanjeev Sharma inflicted a 69,351-vote defeat on his nearest rival, Singh Raj Jatav of the Samajwadi Party (SP). Twelve others who contested the elections lost their deposits, election officials said.

According to data shared by the Election Commission of India (ECI), 792 voters opted for NOTA (none of the above), which surpassed the individual vote counts of eight of the 14 contestants in the fray.

“The BJP candidate (Sharma) secured 96,946 votes while the runner up candidate secured 27,595 votes. Others lost their deposit. The counting on Saturday went on for 26 rounds,” said Santosh Kumar, city magistrate and returning officer for the election.

The counting of votes, for the bypoll held on November 20, was held at the Govindpuram Anaj Mandi on the day. The Ghaziabad assembly seat fell vacant after sitting MLA Atul Garg was elected a Lok Sabha member in the elections held earlier this year.

The win in Ghaziabad consolidated BJP’s grip on the region, as Loni, Sahibabad, Modinagar and Muradnagar are also with the BJP.

Overall, total nine seats in Uttar Pradesh went to bypolls. The ECI figures stated that the SP won only two seats, of Karhal and Shishmau, while the BJP’s ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, won the Meerapur seat, and the BJP swept the rest.

The Ghaziabad seat had witnessed a voter turnout of just 33.3% in the bypoll. It was the lowest among all the nine assembly seats that went to polls in the state.

After Sharma’s victory, BJP office-bearers in Ghaziabad said all sections of the society voted for their party.

“The SP candidate was contesting after he joined the SP few days before the elections were announced. The PDA (pichda, dalit and alpsankhyak) formula of the SP failed and it seems it was just a gimmick. Our candidate worked hard at the ground level and promised all-round development of the region,” said Ashu Verma, assembly convener of the BJP.

Sanjeev Sharma, the winner, who is also the party’s city president, said: “We were estimating that the margin of win will be about 50,000. People favoured us due to developmental works taken up by our leaders. We also carried out many membership drives and these also helped us to connect with voters. My priority will be to upgrade education and health setups. I will also try to bring in satellite centre of AIIMS to Ghaziabad and ensure construction of Dudheshwarnath Temple Corridor.”

The SP, meanwhile, called it a time for reflection to assess the reasons for loss. “About 23,000 fewer votes were logged, compared to the previous assembly election. Further, there were discrepancies in the voters’ list which we highlighted, but no one listened to us. We respect the mandate given by the voters and will brainstorm the reasons behind the loss,” said Faisal Hussain, district president of SP.