Ashish Pandey 
BJP’s Arun Govil is up against Samajwadi Party candidate Sunita Verma from Meerut Lok Sabha seat
New Delhi:
BJP’s Arun Govil — Lord Ram of the hugely popular television serial “Ramayan” — is currently trailing from the Meeurt Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, according to the latest Election Commission trends. Mr Govil is trailing Samajwadi Party candidate Sunita Verma by more than 17,000 votes.
While Ms Verma has so far received about 3.3 lakh votes, the actor-turned-politician has got 3.2 lakh votes.
Ms Verma is the former Mayor of Meerut and her husband Yogesh Verma, a former MLA of the Samajwadi Party, is also a well-known face in the constituency. She was earlier with the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Mr Govil, who is making his electoral debut and lives in Mumbai, was criticised for being an outsider. He, however, had admitted that he does not have a very strong understanding of local issues, but promised to move to Meerut and speak to people to understand their problems after he is elected.
The BJP, which had won 62 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in the 2019 general elections, has been fancying its chances in Meerut where it has been on a winning streak since 2009 and has won a total of six times.
Meerut, which went to polls in the second phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, saw a 58.70 per cent polling, according to the Election Commission.
Times of Viral