UP Assembly Polls 2022: Interesting contest on Ghaziabad seat between BJP and ex-BJP candidates

Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election 2022: In the upcoming state Assembly elections, the Ghaziabad seat will witness an interesting contest between a BJP and an ex-BJP candidate. The Ghaziabad seat, which is a BJP stronghold will see a direct fight between minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, Atul Garg and former BJP leader KK Shukla who recently joined BSP.

In the previous two Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, there were close fights between the BJP and BSP candidates on the seat. This time the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is playing the Brahmin card here and the party hopes that its Dalit voters will also back its candidate.

In 2012 Assembly election, BSP's Suresh Bansal defeated BJP's Atul Garg. In the 2017 Assembly polls, Atul Garg beat Suresh Bansal. However, this time Suresh Bansal is not contesting due to health related issues and so BSP named BJP rebel KK Shukla from the seat.

KK Shukla has been with the BJP for around three decades. However, on Monday he resigned from the party saying that he was disillusioned with BJP and despite working for the party for 27 years, his district was not getting due importance. Shukla was apparently upset at not getting a ticket from BJP to contest elections.

"I had informed senior party officials about the issues - be it on educational institutions, water supply or infrastructure. My constituency never got anything in the past five years. I had no option but to leave the party," he said.