Yogi to rev up Milkipur bypoll campaign with rally today

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will energise the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign for the Milkipur assembly bypoll with a public meeting on Friday as his party aims to wrest the seat from the Samajwadi Party and give the message that it has regained ground in the Ayodhya region, months after losing the prestigious Faizabad Lok Sabha seat.

Adityanath’s rally comes after the successful organisation of the first anniversary of the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the holy dip by the chief minister and his ministerial colleagues at the Prayagraj Mahakumbh on January 22.

The BJP and the SP are locked in a straight fight while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is staying away from the bypoll arena. Both the BJP and the SP have fielded nominees belonging to the Pasi community, the dominant Dalit subcaste in the area. Ten candidates remained in the fray for the Milikipur bypolls after the expiry of the date for the withdrawal of nomination papers.

Milkipur is a reserved constituency where 1.40 lakh of the 3.58 lakh voters are Dalits. About 50,000 of the Dalit voters belong to the Pasi community while others are from the Kori and Jatav communities. There are about 50,000 OBCs, 60,000 Brahmins, 50,000 Yadavs, 30,000 Muslims and 25,000 Rajput voters in the constituency.

As the Dalit vote will be decisive, both the BJP and SP are vying to win community’s support in the BSP’s absence.In the 2022 assembly election, Samajwadi Party candidate Awadesh Prasad defeated BJP nominee Baba Gorakhnath by 13,338 votes. BSP candidate Mira Devi polled 14,427 votes. In the 2007 assembly election, the BSP had bagged the seat.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Suresh Kori said except the 2022 assembly election, the BSP had polled an average 80,000 votes in successive assembly elections in Milkipur since the early 1990s.

“There is no direction from the party leadership to support any party or candidate. Our voters will vote according to their conscience,” he said. Seeking to woo BSP voters, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday opened the doors to BSP rebels Surendra Singh Sagar, Mualana Furqan Raza, Jitendra Sagar and Rakesh Pal. Yadav said these the BSP leaders have reposed faith in the SP ideology and will work for the victory of the SP candidate.

Milkipur made the headlines after the sitting Samajwadi Party MLA Awadhesh Prasad defeated two-time BJP MP Lallu Singh from Faizabad in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Yadav is yet to address a public meeting in the constituency.

The SP has fielded Awadhesh Prasad’s son Ajeet Prasad from the constituency and the BJP has chosen Chandrabhan Paswan.

SP is relying on its tried and tested PDA formula to retain the seat and senior party leaders are campaigning for Ajeet Prasad.

For its part, a battery of BJP ministers are campaigning in the constituency. The party is upbeat after its victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls in November. In June, the BJP had suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha polls are its tally of seats in Uttar Pradesh went down from 62 in 2019 to 33 in 2024.

Adityanath has addressed half-a-dozen public meetings and workers conferences to galvanise the party workers to win the seat.

The BJP is hopeful of getting the support of the upper caste Brahmin and Rajput voters. It has focused on Dalit and OBC dominated areas of the constituency. Jal Shakti minister and former state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and is monitoring the party campaign.

The BJP strategists hope that Paswan will make inroads into the Pasi as well as Kori and Jatav vote banks that supported SP in the 2022 assembly election.

The BJP had won the seat twice, the first time in 1991 during the Ram temple wave, and then in 2017 when it swept the UP assembly election during the Modi wave. The constituency will vote on February 5. Votes will be counted on February 8.