Eve of counting: All parties predict win in Ghaziabad

Ahead of the election results on Thursday, the three main opposition parties -- Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress -- on Wednesday predicted a win for their candidates in Ghaziabad, while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also claimed a victory for the party in the district

Ahead of the election results on Thursday, the three main opposition parties -- Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress -- on Wednesday predicted a win for their candidates in Ghaziabad, while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also claimed a victory for the party in the district.

The counting of votes will be held at Govindpuram Anaj Mandi in Ghaziabad. (HT archive)

The counting of votes for the five assembly segments -- Loni, Muradnagar, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad and Modinagar -- will start at 8am amid heavy security at Govindpuram Anaj Mandi. Several exit polls have predicted a win for the BJP, with the SP being a runner-up.

During the 2017 elections, all the five seats in Ghaziabad were secured by the BJP and the party this time fielded its five sitting MLAs. The SP has contested the elections in alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and fielded two of its candidates from Sahibabad and Ghaziabad while the three other seats were given to the RLD.

The SP’s office bearers said that all the five candidates of the SP-RLD alliance have drawn huge number of voters this time. “We are expecting to secure four out of five seats in Ghaziabad as the voters are not happy with the working of the present government,” said Rashid Malik, district president of the SP.

During the past three assembly elections, the SP has failed to secure a win on any of the seats in Ghaziabad. The last time an SP candidate won in Ghaziabad was in 1996 when Rajpal Tyagi from Muradnagar seat defeated his nearest rival Vivek Tyagi from BJP by a margin of 3,321 votes.

In 2017, Rajpal’s son Ajit Pal Tyagi won on a BJP ticket from Muradnagar and contested on a BJP ticket this time again.

“We are expecting a majority government in UP, and all the five seats in Ghaziabad will be secured by the BJP candidates. The voters have voted in name of our Prime Minister and chief minister,” said Chandra Mohan, spokesperson and secretary of the BJP’s state unit.

The Congress also expressed positive outcome in Ghaziabad. “The party cadres and leaders have worked very hard in these elections, and we are expecting that our vote share will increase. In Ghaziabad, we are positive about the outcome,” said Dolly Sharma, member of the All India Congress Committee and spokesperson for UP Congress.

The BSP, which won four assembly seats in Ghaziabad in 2012, said that they have more chances of winning seats than the BJP and the SP. “We have strongly campaigned for the five seats and we are expecting to win all the five seats on Thursday,” said Virendra Jatav, district president of the BSP.

Experts said that the SP is the main contender to the BJP and it is hard to draw any conclusion.

“The fight is tough on all the five seats in Ghaziabad. The exits polls have predicted a win for the BJP. But, it needs to be seen whether the voters voted for anti-incumbency or pro-incumbency,” said Sanjay Mishra, associate professor (political science) from MMH College, Ghaziabad.

KK Sharma, associate professor (history) from MM College, Modinagar, said, “There will be a tough fight between the BJP and SP-RLD alliance candidates in Modinagar, Sahibabad and Loni. But it is expected that the BJP may do better as already predicted by the exit polls.”