With Congress out of race, Gujjars and Muslims to be deciders in Noida

With the Congress out of the picture, Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency will now see a tough battle among BJP candidate Dr Mahesh Sharma, BSP candidate Satish Awana and SP candidate Narendra Bhati as 19.84 lakh voters will cast their votes on Thursday.

With the Congress out of the picture, Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency will now see a tough battle among BJP candidate Dr Mahesh Sharma, BSP candidate Satish Awana and SP candidate Narendra Bhati as 19.84 lakh voters will cast their votes on Thursday.

But, despite Congress candidate Ramesh Chand Tomar switching to the BJP, Dr Sharma is not emerging as a clear front-runner in the race.

While SP candidate Narendra Bhati is hopeful that the Gujjars, who constitute 12% of the total voters, will all vote for him, BSP candidate Satish Awana is hoping to divide the Gujjar votes and also banking on the BSP’s traditional Dalit vote bank.

Dr Sharma, who had lost the parliamentary elections in 2009 by a margin of a mere 15,904 votes, is confident that about 4.6 lakh new votes will give him an edge and he will emerge a clear winner. In addition to it, unlike the last election, when voting percentage was a mere 48.54 per cent, the BJP is expecting a sharp rise this time.

However, SP candidate Bhati is also sure that the Muslims will vote for his party this time on account of his support to the community in the Kadalpur village mosque demolition incident.