Saffron wave takes all five seats in Ghaziabad

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a clean sweep of Ghaziabad district with its candidates comfortably winning all five seats of Loni, Murad Nagar, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad and Modi Nagar.

The two urban segments of Sahibabad and Ghaziabad was won by Sunil Sharma, a former MLA, and Atul Garg, respectively.

Of the five seats, Sharma won by the biggest margin — of nearly 1,50,685 votes — in Sahibabad, UP’s biggest assembly segment. Sharma defeated his nearest rival and sitting MLA Amarpal Sharma who fought on a Congress ticket and secured nearly 1,12,056 votes.

With the win, Sharma also avenged his previous defeat at the hands of Amarpal who beat him in 2012 elections by a margin of 24,348 votes.

“Bringing Ganga water to Sahibabad, opening of a degree college for boys and girls and a sports stadium will be taken up on priority,” Sharma said after the results were declared on Saturday afternoon.

In Ghaziabad city, BJP’s Garg emerged winner by defeating Bahujan Samaj Party’s sitting MLA Suresh Bansal by a margin of nearly 70,505 votes.

For Garg, the victory was a great comeback as Bansal had defeated him by a margin of 12,121 votes in 2012. The other candidate who lost to him was former MLA KK Sharma from the Congress, who had defeated his father late Dinesh Chand Garg in 1985. Sharma stood third and could secure only 39648 votes.

From Loni, first-timer Nand Kishor trounced sitting BSP MLA Zakir Ali by a margin of 42,809 votes. Heavyweight contender and former MLA Madan Bhaiya of Rashtriya Lok Dal stood third with 42,518 votes.

In Murad Nagar, former UP cabinet minister Rajpal Tyagi’s son Ajit Tyagi contested for the first time and defeated BSP’s Sudhan Rawat by a margin of 89,401 votes. Former Congress MP Surendra Prakash Goel (also a former MLA) came in third spot.

The only woman candidate to emerge victorious in the district is Dr Manju Shivach of the BJP. She won the Modi Nagar seat by defeating BSP’s sitting MLA Wahab Chaudhary (Murad Nagar) by a margin of 66,456 votes. A first-timer, Shivach also trounced another sitting MLA Sudesh Sharma (Modi Nagar) of the RLD.

“Safety and security of women, removal of traffic congestion and payment to sugarcane farmers will be my priority,” she said. The counting started around 8.30am at Govindpuram and most results were declared by 3pm after 30 rounds were completed.