Gautam Budh Nagar: Dr Mahesh Sharma has the pulse of Noida

At 9pm, Sharma had polled 8,28,164 votes while the BSP candidate Satveer Nagar secured 4,93,421.

Dr Mahesh Sharma, Union minister and member of parliament from Gautam Budh Nagar constituency, was leading Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party alliance candidate Satveer Nagar by nearly 3,24,743 votes.

Dr Mahesh Sharma, Union minister and member of parliament from Gautam Budh Nagar constituency, was leading Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party alliance candidate Satveer Nagar by nearly 3,24,743 votes. (Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times)

At 9pm, Sharma had polled 8,28,164 votes while the BSP candidate Satveer Nagar secured 4,93,421. The Congress’ Arvind Kumar Singh secured only 41,960 votes, losing his deposit.

A total of 1,389,270 votes were polled on April 11. More than 77,00 chose NOTA (None of the above) button.

“The counting is expected to continue till late night as there are 43 rounds. We have maintained complete transparency in the process of elections and counting amid the presence of all political parties and independent candidates,” said BN Singh returning office and district magistrate Gautam Budh Nagar.

“People have risen above caste and religion and voted for development. It is the victory of crores of party workers, who worked under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and it is the victory of party president Amit Shah’s organizational skill and strategy,” said Sharma after winning the seat.

The Gautam Budh Nagar parliamentary constituency has five assembly segments — Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Sikandrabad and Khurja. Polling agents of all three political parties were present during the counting. But by 4pm, as BJP candidate’s leads kept extending, most Congress and SP-BSP agents began leaving the counting centre.

The Congress blamed rift within the party. “We could not perform as per expectations because our party fielded an outsider, who came from BSP. We need to change our leaders’ attitude and renounce ego that is creating rift within the party’s workers,” said Dr Mahendra Nagar, president of Gautam Budh Nagar unit of the Congress.