‘Son’rise in Noida as BJP’s Pankaj Singh records big win

A NEW ERA Pankaj Singh, Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s son, defeated his nearest rival by 1,04,016 votes

The Noida assembly segment, one of the most keenly watched seats in the UP assembly elections, saw a ‘son’rise that left all other candidates groping in the dark.

Breaking all past vote margin records in the Noida assembly constituency, Pankaj Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s son, defeated his nearest rival, Samajwadi Party’s Sunil Chaudhary, by a whopping 1,04,016 votes.

While Pankaj Singh secured 1,62,417 votes, Chaudhary managed to get only 58,401 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party’s Ravikant Mishra got 27,365 votes to secure third place.

“We will fulfil all the promises made to voters during our campaign. The BJP will work honestly to fulfil promises made in our (manifesto) for UP polls. We are overwhelmed by the love shown by voters,” said Pankaj Singh.

Of the total 2,54,194 votes polled, 1,786 went to none of the above (NOTA) in the Noida constituency. Fourteen candidates were in the fray for the Noida seat.

Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance workers admitted that they were highly disappointed with the result.

“I fail to understand what led to such a massive defeat. I don’t want to comment further on the results,” said BSP candidate Ravikant Mishra, who was present at the counting centre till the result was announced.

BSP worker Naresh Pradhan, who accompanied Mishra, said, “Voters voted on Hindu-Muslim lines. As a result, we were defeated in UP.”

The Samajwadi Party, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party workers, except for their agents, left the counting centre once the results became apparent after the first 4-5 rounds.

“All castes, including Yadavs and Gujjars, voted for the BJP leading to massive victory for the saffron party. We respect the mandate. The BJP has been successful in polarizing the vote bank,” said Sunil Chaudhary who monitored the counting carefully but was disappointed in each round.

Pankaj Singh maintained a lead right from the beginning in all 35 rounds in the Noida seat.

Noida was carved out as a separate assembly segment in 2012. Earlier, it was a part of the Dadri constituency, which was earlier held by BSP’s Satveer Singh Gurjar and has now gone to Tejpal Singh Nagar of the BJP.

Stakes were high in the Noida seat too as it is the home district of former UP chief minister and BSP chief Mayawati. The political reputation of Dr Mahesh Sharma, the minister of state for tourism and culture, also depended on the result of this seat. wINNEr’s vOtE sHArE