Mahesh Sharma retains Gautam Buddh Nagar with 8.30 lakh votes

BJP leader Mahesh Sharma on Thursday retained the Gautam Buddh Nagar Lok Sabha seat, bagging 8.30 lakh votes, the district election office said.

Sharma defeated his nearest rival, BSP's Saveer Nagar, with a margin of 3.37 lakh votes, pocketing 59.64 per cent of the 13.92 lakh votes polled, the office said.

Voting across the five assembly segments of Noida, Jewar, Dadri, Sikandrabad and Khurja that constitute the Gautam Buddh Nagar parliamentary seat was done on April 12, it said.

Nagar, whose candidature was also backed by the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, emerged second with 4.93 lakh votes, getting a share of 35.46 per cent. Congress' Arvind Kumar Singh was a distant third with 42,077 votes which were 3.02 per cent of total votes, according to the office.

As many as 8,371 people pressed NOTA (None of the Above) option, which was more than what any of the remaining 10 candidates, including Independents, polled, the official data showed.

The counting was conducted at the election office in Phool Mandi in Noida. It began at 8 am and ended at around 10.30 pm after 43 rounds of counting.

Sharma, 59, had secured 50 per cent of the total votes polled in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Gautam Buddh Nagar, according to an official data.

Sharma, a doctor by profession, served as minister of state for civil aviation, minister (independent charge) for culture and environment, among others, in the Narendra Modi government during the 16th Lok Sabha.

"This resounding victory signals the end of dynastic politics and politics of casteism. The people have reposed their faith in Modi, it's the victory of the people's faith," Sharma told PTI Thursday.

"The way the prime minister and BJP president Amit Shah have steered the party, the whole country has supported us and is behind this new history," he added.