Eyeing third win, BJP’s Mahesh Sharma files nomination from GB Nagar

Sharma said he hopes to win by a bigger margin this time. In 2019, Sharma polled 830,000 votes and defeated his nearest rival, BSP’s Satveer Nagar, by 340,000 votes

Expressing confidence that he will win by an “even bigger margin of votes this time”, Bharatiya Janata Party (BjP)’s Lok Sabha candidate from Gautam Budh (GB) Nagar constituency and its sitting MP Dr Mahesh Sharma filed his nomination papers on Wednesday.

BJP candidate and incumbent MP Dr Mahesh Sharma (centre) along with his family and party workers after offering prayers at a temple in Sector 19 before filing his nomination on Wednesday. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

Sharma thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP brass for “believing in him” and said he has complete faith in the people of his constituency that they would support him for a third time.

“I thank my party leadership who believed in me and gave me four tickets to contest as an MP and one to contest as a legislator. I am hoping that we will win by an even bigger margin of votes as compared to last time. I have complete trust in my people,” he said after filing his nomination.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Sharma polled 830,000 votes and defeated his nearest rival, BSP’s Satveer Nagar, by 340,000 votes.

Insisting that his party does not believe in caste and community based politics, Sharma said he had nothing to say to parties that believed in such politics. “The opposition is a sinking ship. They have been shown their place,” he said.

Dormer Gautam Budh Nagar district president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Lakhmi Singh responded, “Our candidates are turning out to be a headache for the BJP in GB Nagar and Ghaziabad seats. BJP is huddling up as other parties are coming to take their votes and now they are worried and say whatever they wish.”

Apart from scores of BJP supporters, Sharma, was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak when he reached the Surajpur collectorate to file his papers. He too said that he was confident that Sharma would win the elections by a “complete majority”.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has forged its fourth political alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Jayant Chaudhary emerging as the third-generation torchbearer from the family and the party to collaborate with the saffron party.

On Monday RLD’s national vice-president Shahid Siddiqui resigned from the party saying democracy is at stake in the country.

SP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhati said the huge number of BJP supporters seen on Wednesday and at the prabudh sammelan (intellectuals’ meet) attended by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday, was a violation of a model code of conduct.

“The crowd was too much. We were only allowed to take four people along for filing our papers and there was much police barricading to deter iur supporters. Are rules different for different parties? We will write about all this to the Election commission,” Bhati said.

“BJP has been trying to distract everyone from the core issues such as unemployment and corruption in the BJP led UP government and electoral bond is one of the biggest examples of corruption. GB Nagar farmers are fighting for their compensation just as people in housing societies are raising their voices for getting their flat registries executed after a delay of several years,” he said.

In mid of March, a few Noida high-rise societies had put up banners stating, “Help us, Dr Mahesh Sharma”, to garner the MP’s attention regarding the pending registry of hundred of flats.

Responding to that, Sharma said he was the one who had taken up this matter in Parliament, due to which registries have now begun. “They have to understand that when the airport was made, I was the minister of state for civil aviation. When the ₹1,200 crore power plant, ₹300 crore Deen Dayal institute, Boraki railway station, Botanical Garden, among other key projects, came up, I was the minister.”

As per the Election Commission of India’s (EC) schedule, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar districts will go to polls on April 26 — in the second phase of the elections.

Sharma is pitted in a triangular fight against INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc candidate Dr Mahendra Nagar from the Samajwadi Party and Rajendra Solanki from the Bahujan Samaj Party.