New Delhi, February 8: YouTuber Meghnad S, aka 'Dilli ka Normie Neta,' is running as an independent candidate from the Malviya Nagar constituency for the Delhi Assembly election 2025. The counting for elections began at 8:00 AM on Saturday, and the results are expected to roll out later in the evening.
Meghnad who boasts of nearly 2 lakh followers on X (formerly Twitter) is contesting against the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Somnath Bharti, a three-time MLA seeking re-election from the seat. As per the official website of the Election Commission of India (EC) at 12:13 PM, the YouTuber is trailing behind NOTA by 23,315 votes and has only got 100 votes so far while NOTA has 31 votes.
A screengrab of the website. | (Photo Courtesy: EC)
Here's how social media users reacted to Meghnad's performance in the assembly election:
Why Did Meghnad Choose To Contest From Malviya Nagar?
The 35-year-old contender has a background in public policy and content creation. Meghnad says that his candidature is an attempt to provide a "normie" alternative to traditional politicians. In addition, he chose a 'pen' as his election symbol.
In a recent interview with The Times of India, Meghnad acknowledged the challenges of running as an independent candidate without the support of a big political party. "I take pride in being an independent candidate. My primary goal is to prove a point: hyper-local leaders can best address local issues. My only boss is YOU, the people of Malviya Nagar," he told the publication.
Following the Exit Poll results, Meghnad on his YouTube channel with over 81k subscribers, put up a video titled 'How to Lose an election in 10 days', anticipating his defeat.
Have a look at it here:
As part of his election campaign, the YouTuber had also released a catchy song on his YouTube channel, titled 'Dilli ka Normie Neta'. Take a look:
Malviya Nagar - A Key Constituency
Malviya Nagar is one of the key constituencies with prominent contenders like the BJP's Satish Upadhyay, AAP's Somnath Bharti, and INC's Jitendra Kumar Kochar facing a tough electoral battle.
According to the EC website at 12:20 PM, Upadhyay is leading by 4,428 votes in the constituency. While, INC's Kochar and AAP's Bharti are trailing by 17,877 votes and 15,820 votes, respectively.
Earlier in the 2020 Delhi Assembly Election, Bharti defeated BJP's Shailendra Singh with a margin of 18,000 votes.
