NEW DELHI: Ghaziabad Lok Sabha constituency, a gateway to Uttar Pradesh and one of the state’s prominent constituencies, is all set to witness a three-cornered fight between the BJP, Congress, and AAP. The Election Commission has announced voting at the western seat in the second phase on April 26, with results on June 4.
Another factor that makes the constituency high profile is that it falls among the highest number of voters in the state, with more than 27 lakh voters (2019 data) and comprises five assembly segments—Loni, Muradnagar, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad and Dholana. It came into existence in 2008 when the Hapur Lok Sabha seat was renamed as Ghaziabad. The constituency is categorised as general and is not reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) categories.
For the 2024 general elections, the BJP has fielded MLA Atul Garg while former mayor Dolly Sharma is contesting on the Congress ticket. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has named Nanadkishor Pundir from the Thakur community as it candidate.
Poll fight
According to political observers, it will be challenging for the BJP to retain the constituency for the fourth consecutive time since 2009. Since the saffron party announced Garg’s candidature after replacing incumbent General (Retd.) VK Singh, the 66-year-old leader, reportedly faces opposition from section of the party’s voters. Though Garg has a name in the constituency and owns several educational institutes, the observers say it will be an uphill task to gain the support of V K Singh’s loyalists and voters from non-Baniya communities, including Dalits.
“A section supporting the party is not happy with the decision to give him the ticket,” said a local leader, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Congress, part of the Opposition INDIA bloc, has given a chance to Dolly Sharma, a local face, an MBA by qualification, and a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) besides being the party’s spokesperson. She was associated with her own business before joining politics in 2017.
The BSP first named Anshay Kalra as its candidate from Ghaziabad, but the party took a U-turn on Monday last and named Nandkishor Pundhir. A senior party leader said that Kalra and Pundir were in the race, but the former could not fulfil documentary formalities, and the party leadership decided to offer the ticket to Pundhir. Meanwhile, change of candidate has provided a weapon to opposition BJP and Congress to criticise the BSP.
Matrix
There were 27,28,978 voters in the Ghaziabad constituency during the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. Out of this, 15,19,938 voters were male and 12,08,931 were female voters. One hundred nine voters belonged to the third gender. 2,564 were postal votes in the constituency. The number of service voters in Ghaziabad in 2019 was 2,846 (2,662 were men and 184 were women).
In the 2019 elections, Ghaziabad witnessed a 55.78 per cent voter turnout. BJP’s VK Singh won with a victory margin of 5,01,500 votes, securing 9,44,503 votes. Singh defeated Suresh Bansal of the SP, who got 4,43,003 votes.
In the 2014 general elections,VK Singh won the seat for the first time. He polled 7,58,482 votes with a vote share of 56.50%. Congress candidate Raj Babbwar got 1,91,222 votes (14.24%) and was the runner-up in the elections.
The BSP’s Mukul came third with 1,73,085 votes (12.89%) and SP candidate Sudhan Kumar was in the fourth position with 1,06,984 votes (7.97%). The BSP and SP were only in alliance in 2019 elections.
The contest
The BJP’s candidate Garg, a minister in Yogi cabinet, is pitted against Congress’ Dolly Sharma, the party’s spokesperson, and BSP’s Nandkishor Pundhir. He was with the BJP for 15 years and joined the BSP recently. The BJP is banking on the new face to break the anti-incumbency. The Congress has again put its faith on Sharma, party’s spokesperson who will also be supported by the SP as both parties are in alliance. The BSP has chosen a Thakur face from the constituency.