The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Chandrabhan Paswan as its candidate for the Milkipur bypoll in Uttar Pradesh. The Milkipur bypoll in Ayodhya district is considered the most prestigious of all the byelections held after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, as the BJP and the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) are again in a neck-to-neck fight for this seat. The SP has fielded Awdhesh Prasad’s son Ajeet Prasad as its official candidate from Milkipur.
Milkipur bypoll
The Milkipur seat fell vacant when sitting SP MLA Awadhesh Prasad won the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in June. Awadhesh Prasad defeated BJP's sitting MP Lallu Singh with a margin of 54,567 votes.
The bypoll was to be held earlier, along with by-elections for nine other Assembly seats in November 2024. But due to a pending court case, the Election Commission deferred the Milkipur bypoll.
Lallu Singh won the Faizabad parliamentary seat twice, in the 2014 and 2019 elections. The SP won the seat last time in 1998 when Mitrasen Yadav emerged victorious.
The SP won 37 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in June last year, but its performance dipped when it could bag only two of the nine Assembly seats in the November bypolls. The BJP retained Phulpur, Ghaziabad, and Khair seats in the bypolls and snatched away Katehari and Kundarki from the SP.
Why is Milkipur so important?
For the BJP, winning in Milkipur is crucial as they want to give an answer to the Samajwadi Party, who boast of winning the Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha seat. Further, Milkipur would help in recreating a perception that Pasis have not deserted the party, as opposition claims.