The by-election for Milkipur assembly seat of Ayodhya district has been announced, nominations will start here from January 10 and voting will take place on February 5. Many implications will be drawn from the results of this one seat, that is why the parties and the opposition are already here with full strength. On one hand, BJP is eyeing to heal the wound of defeat in Faizabad Lok Sabha seat of Ayodhya district by winning this seat in 2024. At the same time, SP will try to recover from the crushing blow of defeat in the recent by-elections.
Awadhesh Prasad, former MLA of Milkipur, surprised the entire country by winning from Ayodhya in the Lok Sabha elections held a few months after the inauguration of the Ram temple. The burden of this defeat was so heavy for the BJP that the celebration of its third consecutive innings at the Center was overshadowed. Since then, Awadhesh Prasad has been the ‘poster boy’ of the opposition including SP. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was even angry with Congress over its reluctance to get him a seat in the Lok Sabha. Now SP has made Ajit Prasad, son of Awadhesh Prasad, its candidate from Milkipur, hence, the credibility of SP’s ‘poster boy’ is at stake here.
BJP gave its full strength
In the by-election held last month, SP had lost the adjacent Katehri seat and also the Kundarki seat of Sambhal. SP had lost its hope even in winning Karhal, Akhilesh’s traditional seat. Therefore, the results of this seat are important for SP to recover from the shock of defeat. By winning this seat, BJP is eyeing to heal the wound of defeat in Faizabad Lok Sabha seat of Ayodhya district in 2024. Therefore, BJP has given its full strength. CM Yogi Adityanath himself has visited Milkipur four times. BJP State President Bhupendra Chaudhary and Organization General Secretary Dharampal have also examined the organizational preparations. Along with Ayodhya in-charge minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Jal Shakti Minister Swatantradev Singh, Minister of State for Health Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, AYUSH Minister Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, Sports Minister Girishchandra Yadav, Minister of State for Food and Logistics Satish Chandra Sharma, Cooperative Minister JPS Rathore have also been appointed here. However, the party has not decided the candidate yet.
Milkipur seat equation
Dalits have the largest population in this seat with more than 3.50 lakh voters. There are more than 1.30 lakh Dalit voters on this seat. Since all the candidates are from this community, the trend of the results will be decided by the forward-backward trend. There are 55 thousand Yadav and more than 30 thousand Muslim voters here, while there are more than 60 thousand Brahmins, 30 thousand Kshatriyas, more than 50 thousand Kori, Chaurasia, Pal and Maurya etc. voters.
previous result
Avadhesh Prasad, SP: 103,905
Baba Gorakhnath, BJP: 90,957
Meera Devi, BSP: 14,427
Neelam Kori, Congress: 3,166