Dinesh Lal Yadav, popularly known as Nirahua, defeated Dharmendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Party in the Azamgarh Loksabha seat. The votes of the bypolls conducted on June 23 are being counted on Sunday. 

Azamgarh, the seat vacated by former UP CM, SP head Akhilesh Yadav, saw a BJP candidate win after 13 years. 

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Who is Dinesh Lal Nirahua?

A Bhojpuri actor, Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ is a well-known face on regional television. He also sings, has been an anchor and a contestant in Bigg Boss. The 43-year-old shot to fame in 2008 after the release of ‘Nirhua Rickshaw Wala’. The sequel to the Bhojpuri film came out in 2015. 

His music album ‘Nirhua Satal Rahe’, released in 2013, was an immediate hit. 

However, the actor joined politics only in 2019. He contested from the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat in the Lok Sabha elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket. He lost to SP’s Akhilesh Yadav by a margin of 259,874 votes. 

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Some of his most popular films are: ‘Nirhua Rikshawala’, ‘Nirhua Hindustani’, ‘Patna Se Pakistan’, ‘Kashi Amarnath’, ‘Nirhua Chalal Sasural’. He has been presented with ‘Yash Bharti’, the highest honour of the Government of Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP bagged one Lok Sabha and three assembly seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party suffered a setback in Punjab’s Sangrur. 

Hailing the BJP’s victory in the two Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh as historic, party president J P Nadda said it reflects people’s faith in public welfare policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Nadda also congratulated Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha for his win in the assembly bypoll and also that of two other party candidates.

“Congratulations to Chief Minister Manik Saha for winning the assembly poll from his constituency and to all Tripura BJP leaders for winning three out of four seats in the bypolls. This is the result of your hardwork and the faith of the people in the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.