FIROZABAD ELECTION HEAT
APRIL 2014

Firozabad April 13 (IANS)

 

While the Bhartiya Janata Party candidate SP Singh Baghael is riding high on the Modi wave in Firozabad, the Samajwadi Party leaders in the district exude over-confidence citing the development projects in the past two years that have made life better for the residents.

 

Samajwadi Party national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav whose son Akshay Yadav is the party candidate here for the Lok Sabha polls, is leaving no stone unturned to ensure a smooth victory for yet another member of the Yadav family.

 

Interacting with media-persons Ram Gopal said Firozabad had much more funds than other districts in the state. Loans of thousands of farmers had been waived. More than 600 villages will soon be electrified, he said. "From laptop distribution to unemployment doles whatever promises we made are being fulfilled," Ram Gopal added.

 

But the moot question that everyone at the tea stalls and paan wala shop seems to be interested in discussing is whether the  glass city of India  will remain unaffected by the current Modi wave. 

 

Elsewhere, it may be different but here in  Firozabad the general mood seems to be favouring Samajwadi Party, says state president of the Samajwadi  Vyapar Sabha Gopal Agarwal.

 

Akshaya Yadav, whose popularity seems rising each day appears all  set to begin his political innings from Firozabad. He began preparing the ground 18 months ago when his candidature was announced by the party.

 

In 2009, Akhilesh Yadav won the seat but opted for Kannauj. Later his wife Dimple Yadav tried her luck in a byelection but was trounced by actor-turned politician Raj Babbar of the Congress who now has shifted to Ghaziabad. Dimple's defeat was then considered a major blow to the prestige of the Yadav "dynasty."

 

Bahujan Samaj Party's SP Singh Baghael  who secured more than two lakh votes in 2009, is now with the Bhartiya Janata Party which hopes to add the Firozabad seat to its kitty this May.

 

But Samajwadi Party's Akshaya Yadav , contesting for the first time, is already a popular face among muslims and Yadavs who constitute roughly 30 percent of the voters in the constituency.

 

The Congress has fielded Atul Chaturvedi, an industrialist while the Bahujan Samaj Party has picked Vishwadeep Singh whose father Braj Raj Singh was an MP and a socialist stalwart .

 

The odd man out is the Aam Admi Party candidate Rakesh Yadav, an ex-Indian Air Force officer, decorated with Rashtrapati Award. Rakesh says his concern is to provide corruption-free governance.

 

Firozabad which at one time in the early 1990s appeared to be on the brink of disaster as a fall out of the MC Mehta PIL on Taj pollution, which led to closure of industries using coal, bounced back after the Supreme Court directed the Gas Authority of India to provide natural gas for glass industries through a pipeline network.

 

"Today not only the output but even the quality of glass ware has improved and the city looks much cleaner. Till 1998 the whole city used to be enveloped in smog and soot due to large-scale consumption of coal by glass furnaces, but today coal use is banned and furnaces are running on gas," said industrialist of Shikohabad Govind Prasad.

 

With a population of around 25 lakhs, Firozabad, once a part of Agra district, is now a major industrial hub with a heavy concentration of glass units. The city is famous for glass bangles and is called Suhag Nagri.

More than 400 units in Firozabad today produce not only bangles but a wide range of  artistic glassware in different colours and shades used in chandeliers and other items. Thanks to the MC Mehta PIL on Taj pollution, the units have switched over from polluting coal to natural gas, improving quality and output.

 

An official told IANS "Akshaya has already done so much developmental work in the district, from irrigation projects to power supply schemes, totalling more than Rs 1500 crore rupees, without being an MP. People know that if he lost all the developmental activities in pipeline will come to a halt. Therefore he looks like already having won the election. The Modi chariot has not even begun its journey in Firozabad.