Milkipur Assembly bypoll: The Election Commission on India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the schedule for the upcoming Assembly bypoll for Uttar Pradesh's Milkipur. As per the Election Commission, the Milkipur constituency will be voting on February 5 and the result will be declared on February 8.
BJP, SP gear up for Milkipur bypoll
With the anouncement of the poll date for the bypoll to the Milkipur seat in Ayodhya, the ruling BJP hopes to continue its winning streak while the opposition Samajwadi Party is seeking to retain its hold over the high-profile constituency.
The BJP is likely to rely on the Hindu unity pitch through slogans like ‘batenge toh katenge’ (divided we perish) while the SP is expected to bank on its ‘PDA’ plank.
PDA is a coinage that denotes the opposition party’s plan to connect with ‘pichda (OBCs), Dalits, and alpshanyak (minorities)’, the mainstays of the SP's impressive show in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in UP, when it won 37 Lok Sabha seats against the BJP's 33.
BJP is hopeful with remarkable performance
In the just concluded bypolls to nine seats, the BJP reclaimed its prestige, winning six seats, including the SP’s bastions like Kundarki in Moradabad, while its ally RLD won one, making it a hugely impressive 7-2 show.
The two seats that SP retained in the bypolls—the Karhal seat in Mainpuri and Sishamau seat in Kanpur—were won with markedly reduced win margins, which is why the Milkipur contest would be keenly watched.
The seat assumes importance as after victory in the Ayodhya parliamentary seat, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav aggressively attacked the BJP, questioning Hindutva politics of the saffron party, and reached Parliament with Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, who had vacated the Milkipur seat on becoming MP.
The bypoll of this seat is due after withdrawal of pleas against the 2022 Milkipur poll in the court.
Going by the caste equations of Milkipur, Dalit votes hold the key here. Of the 3.5 lakh voters on the seat, 1.2 lakh are Dalits, around 55,000 are Yadavs (OBCs), and 30,000 are Muslims. Political experts feel whosoever secures support of Dalits along with 60,000 Brahmins, 25,000 Kshatriyas, and OBCs would emerge a winner.
It is to be seen whether SP’s 'PDA' formula would work on this seat in the same way as it did in 2022 UP polls or if the BJP manages to bridge the caste divide to its advantage.
In 2002, SP's Awadhesh Prasad won the seat, defeating BJP's Baba Gorakhnath. While Prasad had secured 49.99 percent votes (1,03,905), Gorakhnath got 41.83 percent (90,567) votes.
(With PTI inputs)
