Lucknow, Aug 13 (PTI) The Samajwadi Party on Sunday declared former MLA Sudhakar Singh as its candidate for the bypoll to the Ghosi assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh's Mau district.

The bypoll for the seat was necessitated following the resignation of Samajwadi Party MLA and OBC leader Dara Singh Chauhan, who joined the BJP last month.

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Chauhan had submitted his resignation to Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana on July 15.

The Samajwadi Party announced Sudhakar Singh's candidature for the Ghosi seat on its official X handle.

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The Election Commission of India had on August 8 announced that voting for the bypoll to the Ghosi assembly constituency will take place on September 5. The counting of votes will be held on September 8.

Sudhakar Singh was the SP MLA from Ghosi between 2012 to 2017.

Earlier, he had represented the Nathupur (Madhuban after delimitation) assembly seat.

In the 2017 UP assembly elections, he had lost to BJP's Fagu Chauhan from Ghosi.

Dara Singh Chauhan was the forest and environment minister in the previous BJP government headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath before he resigned from the Council of Ministers in January 2022 and joined the SP.

He had also represented the Ghosi seat in the 15th Lok Sabha as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)