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Defying the underlying support for the BJP in most parts of Uttar Pradesh, Meerut district with seven assembly seats bucked the trend. The saffron party’s tally dropped to three from its earlier count of six.
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BJP’s firebrand leader Sangeet Som, who had won the Sardhana seat twice in a row, was among the most prominent loser from the district. SP’s Atul Pradhan defeated Som by nearly 16,000 votes in a tight race. The SP’s poster boy in Meerut had failed to win the seat in 2012 and 2017.
“I have crumbled the citadel of Som, who thought himself to be invincible in Sardhana. I attribute my victory to all sections of the society as all have helped me crushing Som’s vanity,” said a jubilant Pradhan outside a counting centre in Meerut.
What has endeared Pradhan, according to voters, to the people was his constant presence at funerals, marriages and hospitals during the Covid pandemic. Pradhan, a graduate, is facing 38 criminal cases, including two dozens filed under the Yogi Adityanath government, against him. Pradhan’s wife, Seema, is the pradhan of a village.
Som, who hoped to retain his MLA post for a third time on the spin, said his defeat pales against BJP’s landslide.
“My defeat is meaningless as my party has won with a thumping majority in the state. In a democracy, a leader has to remain stoic in victory or defeat. I have been defeated but a small margin. But the people of Sardhana have not rejected me which is why I have got around 1 lakh votes,” said Som.
Beside Som, Satyaveer Tyagi, a sitting BJP MLA, lost the Kithore seat to SP’s Shahid Manzoor.
At Meerut City, sitting MLA and SP-RLD candidate Rafiq Ansari defeated BJP’s Kamaldutt Sharma by 26,282 votes.
At Sivalkhas, alliance candidate Ghulam Mohammed trounced his BJP rival Maninder Pal by 9,495 votes.
The BJP could retain only three seats — Meerut Cantonment , Hastinapur and Meerut South.
In Meerut Cantonmnet, BJP’s Amit Agarwal registered a comfortable victory by polling more than 1 lakh votes
At Meerut South where the counting went down to the wire, BJP MLA Somendra Tomar edged ahead of SP’s Aadil Chaudhary in the final two rounds of counting.
At Hastinapur, minister Dinesh Khatiq was re-elected, defeating his rival Yogesh Verma by more than 10,000 votes.
