BJP avenges Faizabad defeat with big win in Milkipur bypoll
BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan polled 146,397 votes against his main rival Ajeet Prasad of the Samajwadi Party, who secured 84,687 votes.
Avenging its shock defeat on the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in the June 2024 general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Milkipur assembly bypoll in Ayodhya on Saturday, defeating the Samajwadi Party by a margin of 61,710 votes.
BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan polled 146,397 votes against his main rival Ajeet Prasad of the Samajwadi Party, who secured 84,687 votes.
Ajeet Prasad is the son of Samajwadi Party MP from Faizabad Awadesh Prasad, who had defeated two-time BJP MP Lallu Singh in the last general election.
Awadesh Prasad was the sitting Samajwadi Party MLA from Milkipur. The reserved assembly seat fell vacant after he was elected to the Lok Sabha.
After his win, Chandrabhanu Paswan said, “I dedicate my victory to Lord Ram and people of Milkipur. Whatever development work has been carried out in Ayodhya in the last seven years will be replicated in Milkipur.”
Samajwadi Party candidate Ajeet Prasad said, “I lost the Milkipur bypoll due to misuse of the state machinery by the state government.”
The Milkipur seat has been a Samajwadi Party stronghold. The BJP won the seat on only two previous occasions in 1991 and 2017.
Mathura Prasad Tewari of the BJP won the Milkipur seat for the BJP in 1991 and Baba Gorakhnath bagged it in 2017.
The BJP had projected the Milkipur by-election as a contest between its ordinary worker Chandrabhanu Paswan against a political heir of the Samajwadi Party, Ajeet Prasad.
This reserved assembly segment is dominated by the Pasi community to which both the BJP and SP candidates belong.
“The Pasi vote got divided between the BJP and SP while the general category vote went to the BJP in large numbers,” said Prashant Trivedi, associate professor, Giri Institute of Development Studies.
“I think this election once again confirms the longstanding trend of Indian politics where by-elections are generally won by the ruling party,” said Trivedi.
“A section of the voters in Milkipur wanted to vote for the BJP in this bypoll after the party’s defeat in the prestigious Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency in June 2024 general election. This defeat came after the grand opening of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2024. After this defeat, a section of the opposition also tried to portray it as rejection of development work in Ayodhya being carried out by the union and state governments,” Durga Pandey of Ayodhya said.
Another important factor in BJP’s victory in Milkipur was selection of the candidate.
Former BJP MLA Baba Gorakhnath, who won the Milkipur seat in the 2017 assembly poll, was among the front-runners for the party ticket in this bypoll.
However, an internal survey conducted by the BJP had revealed that a large section of locals in Milkipur, especially upper caste voters, local party leaders and workers were against Gorakhnath.
The BJP’s decision to field a local party worker against the Samajwadi Party candidate, who was carrying forward the political legacy of his father, also went in the party’s favour.
