UP: SP's Harendra Malik defeats Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan in Muzaffarnagar

Noida, Jun 4 (PTI) Union minister and BJP candidate Sanjeev Balyan has lost the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat to Samajwadi Party's Harendra Singh Malik by a margin of over 24,000 votes, according to the Election Commission.

Malik got 4,70,721 votes (43.64 per cent) as compared to his nearest rival Balyan's 4,46,049 votes (41.35 per cent), the EC figures showed at 7.30 pm.

The third in the race was Bahujan Samaj Party's Dara Singh Prajapati, who got 1,43,707 (13.32 per cent) votes, it showed.

Malik (70) is a regional Jat leader and a former Rajya Sabha MP.

Balyan served as Minister of State of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in the Modi government after his victories in the 2014 and 2019 LS polls.

In 2019, he won from Muzaffarnagar by defeating Rashtriya Lok Dal's then-president Ajit Singh with a narrow margin of 6,526 votes.

Muzaffarnagar had gone to polls on April 19 in the first phase of the general elections. PTI KIS RHL