Milkipur bypoll results: BJP eyes victory in key UP seat, set to avenge Faizabad loss

BJP's Chandrabhanu Paswan

BJP's Chandrabhanu Paswan is leading by over 22,000 votes over Samajwadi Party's (SP) Ajit Prasad in the Milkipur assembly bypoll. The bypoll was necessitated after SP's Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat following his election to the Lok Sabha from Faizabad last year.

While the SP is looking to retain the seat, the BJP sees the election as an opportunity to avenge its loss in Faizabad. In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, Milkipur was the only seat the BJP lost in Ayodhya district. While the BSP is not contesting the bypoll, the Congress is backing its alliance partner SP.

Months after the BJP's defeat to the Samajwadi Party in Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, where Ayodhya's Ram Temple was inaugurated, the saffron party has turned the Milkipur bypoll, an assembly segment of the constituency, into a high-stakes prestige battle. The results are set to be announced today.

Earlier, the BJP deployed several ministers and MLAs to hold rallies, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself campaigned there multiple times. The BJP has called on the voters to "avenge their defeat of Ayodhya" (Faizabad Lok Sabha seat).

Adityanath has also termed the battle at Milkipur as "nationalism vs dynastic politics", adding "The SP is a party of criminals". Now, the BJP, turning the Milkipur Vidhan Sabha bypoll into a battle of honour, is eyeing to avenge the Faizabad defeat months after the inauguration of Ayodhya's Ram Mandir in January 2024.