Grand alliance no threat for BJP in Ghaziabad: V.K. Singh

By Nivedita Singh

Ghaziabad, April 11 (IANS) The BJP does not feel a threat from the grand alliance here as it has done enough developmental work in the area to seek the support of voters, sitting BJP MP and former Army chief V.K. Singh said on Thursday.

Speaking to IANS after casting his vote here along with his wife, he said his party was focusing on development issues across the country as well as in Ghaziabad.

"Since 2014, my as well as my party's priority have been development, development and development. People are liking that. I am very confident that people will vote for me for the work I have done," he told IANS.

"Even when the opposition parties are united here, they are not a threat to me or the BJP. The people of Ghaziabad had been voting for development and they will continue to do so. Have you ever heard the opposition candidates speaking about development of the area?" he said.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Singh won by 567,260 votes by securing 758,482 votes against Congess candidate Raj Babbar who came second with 191,222 votes. Singh said this time the number of voters had gone up and so "the winning margin (for Singh) will also go up".

In 2019, the contest is three-cornered with the AAP, SP and BSP joining hands as they put forward SP's Suresh Bansal against Singh and Congress candidate Dolly Sharma. In 2014, the SP, BSP and the AAP had separate candidates.

Confident of winning, Singh, first elected to Parliament in 2014, said before this "people have not seen our work properly".

"This time, people have seen my work, and I feel they are happy. I got a positive response and I am sure I will be re-elected. The BJP is coming back to power."

Asked if he had any regrets, he said: "There is nothing like regret. You start a journey by thinking something. In my journey, I was able to do more and achieve more than I had planned. I want to come back so that I can do even more work for my people."

Questioned on his biggest achievement in the last five years as an MP, he said: "See the city. It was totally different when I came to power. Talk to people and they will tell you better how I have transformed this place and what all developments I brought."

Asked to rate his tenure on a scale of 1 to 10, he said he believes that people will rate him through voting and "the results will better rate the tenure".

(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)