The young faces in BJP deliver big wins in the Assembly polls

LUCKNOW: Three young candidates of BJP registered record wins on their debut. The BJP is showcasing this as evidence that the youth vote was for Narendra Modi and the party in UP.

Pankaj Singh, the 38-year-old son of home minister Rajnath Singh and a long-time functionary of the state BJP unit, won by a substantial 1.04 lakh votes from Noida. Shrikant Sharma, 46, the party’s national general secretary and a key aide of Amit Shah, won by the same margin from Mathura on his debut and defeated four-time Congress MLA and legislative party leader, Pradeep Mathur. Manisha Anuragi (35) won her first election from the Rath seat in Bundelkhand by 1.04 lakh votes as well. The three were among five candidates in UP who won their seats by a margin of over one lakh votes.

Singh and Sharma are expected to get berths as young faces in the state cabinet. “The youth voted totally for Modi and BJP in all seats in UP,” Sharma told ET, saying they saw through the “marketing” of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi. “You promise free laptops and smartphones but basic education facilities are absent in primary schools, the Allahabad High Court noted,” Sharma said. He is gearing up for polls in HP as he’s in charge of the state.

Singh said UP’s youth had rejected the freebies promised by Akhilesh, as they actually want security and jobs, areas in which Yadav had miserably failed. Anuragi had the highest margin among woman winners in UP.