Dharam Singh Saini Election Result 2022, Nakur Election Result 2022 Live News: Former Uttar Pradesh minister Dharam Singh Saini, who jumped ship to the Samajwadi Party, was leading by a wafer-thin margin of 212 votes against BJP candidate Mukesh Choudhary. The counting of votes is underway and the result could be declared by evening today.
Saini, who was forest minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, is now riding Samajwadi Party’s bicycle, and to challenge him, the BJP has fielded Mukesh Chaudhary. In 2017, Saini – a four-time MLA – had defeated Congress heavyweight Imran Masood, who too had switched over to the Samajwadi Party camp. Banking heavily on Muslim support, Saini will face stiff challenge from the BSP, which too has fielded a Muslim candidate, Sahil Khan.
As many as 11 candidates are in the fray which include Congress’ Randheer Singh, AIMIM’s Rizwana and Aam Aadmi Party’s Ashish Tyagi. In the 2017 UP polls, Saini won by a margin of 4,057 votes which was 1.59 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency. BJP, meanwhile, had a vote share of 36.93 per cent. In 2012 UP Assembly elections, Saini — who was with the BSP back then — defeated Imran Masood of INC by a margin of 4,564 votes which was 1.98 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency. BSP had a vote share of 38.65 per cent. Saini jumped the ship to the SP camp along with ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan, and half a dozen MLAs – all belonging to the backward community.
However, the BJP claims that the defections will have no impact on the poll outcome and the saffron party will repeat its 2017 performance. The BJP countered these defections by roping in former Union minister and senior Congress RPN Singh. Aparna Yadav – daughter-in-law of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav – also joined the BJP just ahead of the BJP.