Noida: Though BJP has not yet announced its candidates for the Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad seats, Noida MP and Union tourism minister Mahesh Sharma has started his campaign in earnest.Sharma has come out with a glossy booklet of the work done by him in the past five years, right from claiming credit for the Aqua Line metro to the Jewar airport project and the upgrade of the botanical park. However, Sharma’s detractors in BJP say he has been inaccessible not only to people but also to his party workers.A graph on the cover of the 20-page booklet — which contains photos of the MP with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CM Yogi Adityanath and other BJP stalwarts — shows a steadily increasing success rate of developmental work in the district in the past five years. Surprisingly, the actual data in the graph is missing. Sharma, in his booklet, lays claim to credit for the Jewar international airport project, adding it will be a reality due to his efforts.“This will be the country’s largest airport. There will be all-round development in neighbouring area and the project will generate huge employment,” he claims.Other achievements listed include a Rs 10,000 crore 1,320 MW power plant in Khurja, upgrade of the Botanical Garden in Sector 38-A. Incidentally, most of these projects were mooted before Sharma became an MP. For example, the elevated road was proposed in 2012, and Botanical Garden multi-level parking in 2014.Sharma has also listed some authority projects like the Magenta Line, Habitat Centre, underpasses at Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, and credited them to his efforts. He has also listed a plan to develop a tourism destination, connecting major historical and religious places. There is also a plan to develop a “spiritual circuit”.However, voters, especially the rural ones, appear unhappy with Sharma since he has not visited many villages in the past five years. Sharma had faced protest in Dankaur’s Mirzapur village last week.Meanwhile, the BSP-SP candidate Satveer Nagar has already started extensive people-to-people contact across villages of Jewar, Dankaur, and Dadri since last week. “I will be filing my nomination papers on March 22,” he told TOI.The GB Nagar seat is traditionally dominated by the Thakurs followed by Gurjjars, Jatavs and Muslims. In 2014, the SP’s Narendra Bhati had lost it to Sharma by over three lakh votes.

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