'Emphatic and historic' RLD elated at victory in Meerapur bypoll

Lucknow, Nov 23 (PTI) The Rashtriya Lok Dal on Saturday described its candidate Mithilesh Pal's victory in the Meerapur assembly seat in Muzaffarnagar district as "historic" and "emphatic".
     A party spokesperson also said that the victory assumes significance, as the people of Meerapur have once again reposed their faith in the party led by Jayant Chaudhary.
    RLD chief and Union minister Jayant Chaudhary said in a post on X in Hindi, "My best wishes to the newly elected MLAs who won in the bye-elections in various states. In Uttar Pradesh, the NDA has performed very strongly by running a joint election campaign. Special thanks to the people of Meerapur!!"
    RLD spokesperson Ankur Saxena told PTI on Saturday, "The victory achieved by party candidate Mithilesh Pal in the Meerapur assembly seat is historic as well as emphatic. She fought very well, and the people of Meerapur showered their blessings on her. The people of Meerapur have once again reposed their faith in the party, and in our leader Jayant Chaudhary."
    He said the NDA bagged a lion's share of seven seats in the bypolls, and "virtually decimated the Samajwadi Party" which could only manage to retain the party bastion of Karhal in Mainpuri district and Sishamau in Kanpur.
    The Rashtriya Lok Dal's Mithlesh Pal won the Assembly bypoll from Uttar Pradesh's Meerapur, according to the Election Commission.
     Pal bagged 84,304 votes, defeating her nearest rival Sumbul Rana of the Samajwadi Party by 30,796 votes.
    Zahid Hussain of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) finished third with 22,661 votes, while Shahnazar of the Bahujan Samaj Party came fifth with 3,248 votes.
    The bypoll in Meerapur was necessitated after sitting MLA Chandan Chauhan of the RLD got elected to the Lok Sabha from Bijnor earlier this year.
    The RLD in a post on X in Hindi, said, "Congratulations to Smt Mithlesh Pal and all the fellow workers, this victory is the result of the efforts of all of you. The blessings of the entire society and the hard work of all the workers paid off."
     The RLD had won the seat in the 2022 assembly polls too, but fighting in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. But it contested these by-poll as part of the NDA.
    Apart from Meerapur, other seats where bypolls took place were Katehari in Ambedkar Nagar, Karhal in Mainpuri, Meerapur in Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Majhawan in Mirzapur, Sishamau in Kanpur city, Khair in Aligarh, Phulpur in Prayagraj and Kundarki in Moradabad.
    Eight of these seats fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as Lok Sabha MPs. The bypoll in the Sisamau seat is being held as Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki was convicted in a criminal case and resultantly disqualified.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)