Milkipur bypoll: BJP avenges Ayodhya defeat, wins by huge margin

While the BJP leaders hailed the victory, the SP accused the saffron party of ‘misusing’ the official machinery to defeat his party.

Lucknow: BJP trounced arch rival Samajwadi Party (SP) by a huge margin in the Milkipur Assembly bypoll avenging its humiliating loss in the Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha seat in last year's general elections.

BJP has wrested the seat from the SP.

BJP nominee Chandrabhanu Paswan defeated SP candidate Ajeet Prasad, whose father Awadhesh Prasad resignation upon his election to the LS had necessitated the bypoll, by over 61,000 votes.

Paswan secured a comfortable lead over his rival in the very first round and never looked back. The BJP candidate secured a little over 1.46 lakh votes while the SP nominee could get only a little over 84,000 votes.

While the BJP leaders hailed the victory and sought to portray SP’s win in Ayodhya in 2024 LS polls a ‘fluke’, the SP accused the saffron party of ‘misusing’ the official machinery to defeat his party.

‘’Today we have registered a big win in Delhi…..the victory in Milkipur is testimony to peoples’ faith in the leadership of prime minister Narendra Modi’’ UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said.

‘’BJP’s victory in Milkipur is a farce…BJP can’t defeat us through votes and therefore it tries to win the elections by misusing the official machinery,’’ SP president Akhilesh Yadav said in a message on his official ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) handle.

The SP had earlier lodged complaints with the Election Commission alleging that their supporters were harassed by the police and were not allowed to exercise their franchise.

Following its defeat in Ayodhya in the LS polls, the BJP had made the Milkipur Assembly bypoll a become a prestige battle and went all out to wrest it from its arch rival SP.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited Ayodhya over a dozen times in the past few months and deployed senior ministers to camp there. He also addressed a series of election meetings in the constituency and placated the disgruntled party leaders.