I myself belong to Ballia with some good extent of knowledge about the local politics and as far as I remember we had never heard about Neeraj before the elections were announced. He has won on the sympathy generated by the death of Chandrasekhar. By and large the people of Ballia are not sure how he would do but probably they have voted for him because of the TINA( There is No Alternative) factor or may be they thought he would be better of the lot. Hope the gamble pays off and the city that declared its independance in 1942 much before the independance of India and faught a successful fierce battle with the Britishers, finally gets a leader who can implement the vision of the greats like Murali Manohar, a legend from Ballia and give its people better roads, education and health care.
