NOIDA: BJP, which reposed faith in its sitting MLAs, retained all eight constituencies in Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad. The winning margins, however, were varied. While the BJP candidate from Sahibabad won by 2.14 lakh votes, the nominee from Loni had a narrow margin of just over 8,000 votes. On the whole, most of BJP’s candidates in the two districts bettered their 2017 performance.
The SP-RLD alliance, which gave BJP a tough fight in a few seats, managed to garner the most number of votes after the winning party. BSP’s performance was on the decline, even in Dadri and Muradnagar that were once considered its strongholds. Congress continued with its poor show, with the Noida candidate, Pankhuri Pathak, securing just about 14,000 votes. Unlike in Punjab, AAP, the new entrant in UP, failed to leave an impression.
