Saffron run unbroken in Ghaziabad as Garg cruises: ‘Faced dissent, misinformation but all well now’

GHAZIABAD: BJP’s Atul Garg defeated his nearest rival – Dolly Sharma of Congress – by a margin of over 3.3 lakh votes, securing over 58% of the total votes polled.
It’s also the party’s third biggest victory margin in the state after Mahesh Sharma’s 5.6 lakh from GB Nagar and Rahul Gandhi’s 3.9 lakh from Rae Bareli.
This marked the fourth consecutive win for BJP in Ghaziabad, considered a “safe seat” for the party.
Since 2009, when Ghaziabad was carved out of Hapur after delimitation, BJP has never lost a general election from there.
Garg (66), who has held the Ghaziabad assembly seat twice — in 2017 and 2022 — thanked party workers and PM Modi, who held a roadshow in the city to campaign for him.
“Through my campaign, I kept telling the electorate that I am seeking votes in the name of Narendra Modi. I owe my victory to Modi ji and party workers,” he said.
Garg – who replaced VK Singh as the candidate this time – said he faced a lot of discontent among voters, particularly among the Rajputs who were unhappy with the party as few members from the community were given tickets.
“This win is personally relieving for me. A lot of misinformation was spread against me by the opposition. I battled dissent as well. But as they say, all’s well that ends well. NDA, under Modi ji, is set to create history by forming the govt the third time in a row,” he added.
Garg, who maintained his lead from the first round itself, bagged 8.5 lakh votes by the end of the 62nd round. Dolly Sharma of Congress – the INDIA Bloc candidate – secured 5.2 lakh votes. She secured 35.2% of the total votes polled while Garg bagged over 58%.
“Honestly speaking, I was hopeful of a win this time. I had worked hard for it. But even in defeat, I can say this is Congress’s best performance in years. It was a battle well-fought,” she said.
In the last Lok Sabha polls of 2019, Sharma managed just 7% of the votes polled and lost to VK Singh, emerging third.
BSP’s Nand Kishor Pundir ended up with a little over 75,000 votes.
“At least we tried. The final verdict, however, rests with ‘janta janardan’. We respect their decision,” he said.
Apart from BJP, Congress and BSP candidates, there were 11 more nominees in the fray from the seat.
At 0.47%, their combined vote share was even lower than that of NOTA, which accounted for 0.5% of the total votes polled. All of them had their deposits forfeited.