Uttar Pradesh can develop through better coordination between the Centre and the state.
As he reaches out to voters and greets them, he says issues in Meerut city are similar to what the entire state has been grappling with.
“There are corruption, misgovernance, poor law and order, unemployment, incidents against women and the difficulties faced by farmers,” says Bajpai, a former state minister.
The BJP veteran’s supporters believe his stature as a senior leader coupled with his image of being accessible, will once again result in a smooth sailing for him in the polls.
“He is easily accessible and we have often seen him ride a scooter, which one rarely associates with a politician,” said Bittu, a local.
However, SP’s Ansari exudes confidence that results will favour him this time.
Though Samajwadi Party has traditionally not done too well on the Meerut city seat, Ansari feels the performance of the Akhilesh government would help him steer to victory this time around.
His supporters like Altaf feel there would be some resentment over the demonetisation decision which would assist him.
They also feel since there is no Congress candidate this time, as the party has allied with SP, it would help Ansari.
Both Ansari and Bajpai have to ward off the challenge posed by two candidates in fray from the rival parties.
Almost opposite to Bajpai’s New Mohanpur Colony residence lives BSP candidate Pankaj Jolly, while a couple of houses away stays Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Gyanendra Sharma.
Jolly, a businessman, said if elected education related issues will be his prime focus.
Sharma, who is an academician, too stresses on education and ensuring greater cleanliness in the city. He also emphasised that Western UP should be made a separate state.
The seat goes to polls on February 11, along with other seats in the first phase.
(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
Source: dnaindia.com