Day after volte-face, SP-RLD candidate Avtar Bhadana begins campaigning in Jewar

The SP-RLD alliance candidate Bhadana on Thursday said he was withdrawing from race as he had Covid; late evening, he did a U-turn and said he will contest as he was Covid negative

A day after his volte-face over contesting from Jewar assembly constituency -- he had declared on Thursday morning that he will not be contesting the polls, only to tweet late evening that he will -- Samajwadi Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance candidate Avtar Singh Bhadana on Friday completed his nomination filing process at the election office in Greater Noida’s Surajpur.

The SP-RLD alliance candidate from Jewar, Avtar Singh Bhadana (third from left), completed his nomination filing process at the election office in Greater Noida’s Surajpur on Friday. (Sourced)

The 60-year-old former MP from Faridabad also pledged to put up a strong fight against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and incumbent MLA Dhirendra Singh.

On Thursday morning, Bhadana sent a phone message to media persons that he was withdrawing from the race as he had tested positive for Covid-19 and did not wish to infect others. His message created much furore in the SP-RLD camp, with the RLD immediately finding and announcing a replacement candidate, advocate Indervir Bhati, even as several SP leaders began hectic lobbying in Lucknow to secure the Jewar ticket, party insiders said.

Later that evening, around 9.40pm, Bhadana executed a volte-face and tweeted that his Covid report “had come negative” and he will be fighting the upcoming assembly elections from the Jewar seat itself.

“I withdrew because I did not want my people to get infected with Covid-19 as my first report was positive. But later, another report stated that I was negative, and so I decided to contest and continue fighting for the honour of my community,” said Bhadana, who hails from the Gurjar community, which has a voter base of about 50,000, of a total five lakh voters in Jewar.

The Rajputs, the other major community in the region and from which sitting MLA Dhirendra Singh hails, has about 70,000 voters, as per the latest voters’ list.

On Friday, Bhadana also met advocate Bhati and sought his support.

Bhati, who is from Greater Noida’s Devta village, later said, “After the top leaders of my party (RLD) asked me to fight, I followed their instructions. Now, since Bhadana wants to fight, my leadership has asked me to support him and I will honour the instructions of my senior leaders.” .

Meanwhile, Dhirendra Singh, who is contesting for the third time from the seat, and the second time on a BJP ticket, said it did not matter who the opponent is.

“We are not bothered about who is fighting against us. We have worked for the people for the past five years and brought unprecedented development to this region -- the Noida airport and several other mega projects -- creating jobs for the youth. People know that only the BJP can bring growth and create opportunities for all communities,” said Singh, who has been reaching out to people in all villages daily.

The Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Narendra Dedha, 50, and the Congress candidate Manoj Chaudhary, 48, also carried out door-to-door campaigns in villages on Friday.

“It is an interesting election for Jewar this time because this region has attracted the attention of the country due to the upcoming international airport. This election will prove whether the people are happy with projects such as the airport, medical device park, film city and other mega industrial projects,” said Bipin Sharma, political expert.