nion Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday sought electoral support for the BJP’s Gautam Buddh Nagar candidate Mahesh Sharma through a telephonic speech that was played out on loudspeakers after he skipped an in-person visit here due to inclement weather.

Shah made in-person appearances for poll campaigns in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan earlier in the day and was scheduled to reach Noida in the evening.However, since he could not visit Noida due to bad weather in Delhi-NCR, the Union home minister addressed the gathering here through a brief telephonic call and solicited voters’ support to ensure that Narendra Modi becomes prime minister for a third term.

“During the last 10 years, Modi has worked on a range of issues from the welfare of the poor to urban and infrastructure development in the country.

The team of Mahesh Sharma and Narendra Modi got an airport in Noida and connected the area with several highways. Sharma has made a huge contribution to the comprehensive development of Noida,” Shah said.

“PM Modi and (UP Chief Minister) Yogi (Adityanath) have strengthened law and order in Uttar Pradesh and with this opened paths for new developments in the state.

I do not want to talk for long now and apologise for not being able to come there in person. But I promise I will be there for Mahesh Sharma’s victory procession,” Shah said.

The BJP’s western Uttar Pradesh unit president Satyendra Singh Sisodia, Gautam Buddh Nagar in-charge Kapil Dev Agarwal, Noida chief Manoj Gupta, Gautam Buddh Nagar chief Gajendra Mavi, Noida MLA Pankaj Singh, and Mahesh Sharma stood around the dais as Shah addressed the rally over phone call for about 2 minutes.

Gautam Buddh Nagar has over 26 lakh registered voters and goes to polls on April 26. The BJP’s Mahesh Sharma won the Lok Sabha polls here in 2014 and 2019.

 This time, he is facing competition from Samajwadi Party’s Mahendra Singh Nagar and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Rajendra Singh Solanki, among others.