BJP Noida Chief Supports Mahesh Sharma in the Lok Sabha Elections Despite Candidature Speculation

With the 2024 elections still months away and candidates vying for BJP tickets, Manoj Gupta, the district head of the party for Gautam Buddh Nagar, Monday backed current Lok Sabha MP Mahesh Sharma despite rumors that an IAS official would be given a ticket.

Taking notice of various news stories that suggested other persons, including an IAS official, as likely contenders to succeed Sharma, Gupta said that the BJP’s central leadership would choose the candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Sharma, a seasoned BJP politician, served as Noida’s first MLA when the city became a new assembly district. He didn’t win the Gautam Buddh Nagar Lok Sabha election in 2009, but he did in 2014 and 2019, according to Gupta. The district president of the BJP assured reporters, “We will never allow the sponsored agenda moving against the honorable MP (Sharma) to come true. You all know very well what their goal is.

Regarding the potential BJP candidacy of IAS officer Brajesh Narain Singh, Gupta said that if the “candidate declared by the news channel” want to enter politics, he should first step down from his position before entering the fray. In order to take action against Singh, who is presently serving as the Special Secretary to the APC Branch in Lucknow and formerly held the position of district magistrate in Gautam Buddh Nagar from 2017 to 2020, Gupta stated that he will write to both the federal and state governments. The IAS official said, “I have never spoken anything on political lines,” when approached by PTI. I respect my manners. It’s possible that some folks misconstrued my social gatherings.

“I socialize with folks on vacations when they invite me. I discuss with them socioeconomic concerns and the effects of construction initiatives like the Noida Airport and highway corridors, said Singh. To find out whether he had made any “political comments” in those encounters, he encouraged others to go through his social media postings.

The BJP’s press conference follows public meetings Singh held with residents’ associations throughout Gautam Buddh Nagar in recent months. Singh is well-known for his involvement in the acquisition of land for the first phase of the Noida International Airport and attaching mafia properties under the Gangster’s Act.