Like all politicians, BJP's Ramveer Singh dreamt of ending the losing streak of his party, but little did he know his victory would be so stylised, featuring a rout by 1.44 lakh votes of his nearest rival.
Singh won the Kundarki assembly constituency, a seat BJP had been losing since 1993, defeating Samajwadi Party's Mohammad Rizwan, who bagged 25,580.
His victory assumes more significance as it came against an all-Muslim lineup in a constituency where around 60 per cent of the electorate comes from the community.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath termed it a victory of nationalism.
"What was once a dream has become a reality today," he said on Saturday after the results were announced.
Singh claimed that when the seat became vacant, he was approached by hundreds of Muslims, who urged him to contest the bypoll.
Bypolls in Kundarki were necessitated following the election of its sitting MLA, SP's Ziaur Rehman, as the Lok Sabha MP from Sambhal parliamentary constituency earlier this year.
"I was expecting a victory margin of 50,000 to 60,000. But workers told me I would win by more than 1 lakh votes. People had a feeling of love towards me. They were disappointed by the SP, as cases were framed against lakhs of people, and thousands of them were put behind bars during the SP rule from 2012 to 2017," Singh said.
"When the seat got vacated, hundreds of Muslims came to me and asked me to seek a ticket. "We will make you an MLA, we have made up our mind," they said. Because they requested, I remained active, and the party leadership also listened to the voice of the people," he said.
To Rizwan, who alleged that the elections were rigged, Singh said he was hiding his failure.
"He can get the election conducted once again. He will know what his worth is," Singh said.
On Saturday, when the results were announced, Rizwan contested the mandate, alleging booths were captured.
"It is not the defeat of the Samajwadi, people did not vote here and the booths were looted," he told PTI.
Rizwan served as Kundarki MLA in 2002, 2012, and 2017.
UP BJP minority morcha president Kunwar Basit Ali said political leadership in Kundarki has mostly been in the hands of the Turk community and despite having a greater number, the Muslim Thakur community has been neglected.
Ali, who himself belongs to the Muslim Thakur community, said the result proved Ramveer Singh got a unanimous mandate from the Muslim Thakur community.
"Voters of the Muslim Thakur community connected the sentiments of their original clan with Thakur Ramveer Singh, who is also very popular among Muslims, which helped him in registering a landslide victory," Ali, who held about 100 public meetings in Kundarki, said.
He claimed that Singh also got the support of Muslims from the Turk community who were harassed by SP MLAs through false cases.
Ali said the Muslims "wisely" chose the path of inclusive empowerment and did not let the "allergy" of Muslims towards the BJP turn into the "energy" of the opponents.
The Muslim-dominated seat in west UP's Moradabad was a test of BJP's Hindu unity plank.
The party's campaign in the bypolls largely revolved around the 'Ram aur Rashtra' rhetoric against the opposition Samajwadi Party's bid to consolidate the OBC-Dalit-Muslim vote bank.
The win came as a salve for the BJP, which suffered a massive cut in seats in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier in the year.
The party won six of the nine Assembly seats in the state where bypolls were held on November 20.
Adding to BJP's emphatic performance, its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal clinched Meerapur, the lone seat it contested. The Samajwadi Party emerged victorious on the remaining two seats — Karhal and Sishamau.
Besides Kundarki, the BJP emerged victorious in Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Khair (SC), Phulpur, Katehari and Majhawan assembly constituencies.
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