Lamenting that the industrial township of Ghaziabad has become the least developed of all the NCR cities, Raj Babbar, the Congress candidate from this Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday, said he would work towards making the city as prosperous as Noida or Gurgaon.
Mr. Babbar, who filed his nomination papers on Saturday, is set to face a tough fight from three other players — the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party — and would also have to contend with the division of votes in the secular camp caused by the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Targeting the ‘Modi wave’, Mr. Babbar said: “It is not a wave, it is a tsunami the party has created in the name of Mr. Modi and tsunamis are never meant to do anything protective. They only bring disaster.”
On being asked about his agenda in this election, he said: “My main agenda is the development of Ghaziabad. This is the least developed of all the NCR townships. Look at the kind of traffic, which bothers the residents here every day. Yesterday, I had to come for the inauguration of a party office here at 10 a.m. but I reached one-and-a-half hours late only because of the traffic on NH-24.”
“We will work on de-congesting the roads and widening the NH-24 once we come to power,” he added.
Mr. Babbar said he understood the sufferings of the poor as he was the son of a fourth grade employee and had seen poverty in his childhood. “I have been jailed many times for protesting for farmers’ rights. I am connected to people in the rural area and understand their issues closely,” he said.
Talking about other local candidates who claim to understand the regional issues better, he said: “What if they are insiders, have they ever raised people’s problems in Parliament?”
Congress supporters in Ghaziabad believe that Mr. Babbar has the support of people from all castes and religions. “Muslims were cheering for him saying Babbar Khan will win… Jats were cheering for him saying Babbar Chaudhary will win… I could see all sections supporting him. He has created an image which is beyond caste or religion, he is a Minister for one and all,” said a supporter outside the Ghaziabad collectorate office.
