![]() ![]() ‘ Modiji ki jai ho!’ they shouted, referring to their main vote catcher, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ![]() The next SUV revved up and a leader from an adjoining village walked in, led by a thin drummer boy in a shiny outfit fraying at the edges. ![]() But instead of the 2,500 people anticipated-for whom adequate chairs, microphones, megaphones and posters had been arranged-there were no more than 50. It was 12:20 pm, mantri-ji was expected any minute. It was a BJP yuva morcha, or youth event, and they were getting louder. Sharma, 59, won 50% of the votes in 2014-a margin of 23.37% over his nearest rival from the Samajwadi Party. On a recent March day, protesters and party workers gathered for an election rally of union culture minister Mahesh Sharma, BJP member of parliament (MP) from the Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency. Some were happy to sell their land, others protested when the government tried to acquire it in 2011 to build an expressway, and, more recently, in villages in and around Noida and Jewar town over various government projects including a new airport. Sutyana is at the other end of this parliamentary constituency, a space of shrunken farmlands and former farmers. Gautam Buddh Nagar is not as well known as its urban half, the Delhi suburb of Noida, a land of IT companies and glass-fronted buildings. ![]()
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