Uttar Pradesh: Bheem Army's presence to make Milkipur bypoll a triangular contest

Lucknow: With the Azad Samaj Party led by firebrand Dalit leader Chandrashekhar, who is also the founder of the Bheem Army, jumping into the contest, the forthcoming bypoll in Milkipur assembly constituency, part of the Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, which has become a prestige battle for the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP, is likely to witness a triangular fight.

The Azad Samaj Party has fielded Suraj Choudhary, an SP rebel, from the Milkipur seat. While the SP has fielded Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad's son Ajeet Prasad, the BJP has nominated Chandrabhan Paswan. Interestingly, all the three candidates hail from the 'Pasi' (Dalit) community.

The Dalit voters, which constitutes around 50 per cent of the total electorate, will be the deciding factor in the seat. While Congress has extended support to SP, BSP has decided to stay away from the contest.

Azad Samaj Party state president Sunil Chittor claimed that the Dalit voters were 'solidly' behind his party. "Both SP and BJP are anti-dalit... they have done nothing for the community... the Dalits are looking for an alternative," he said.

The bypoll was necessitated after Awadhesh Prasad, a senior Dalit leader in the SP, resigned from the Milkipur seat after being elected to the Lok Sabha. His son is now the SP nominee from there.

The BJP and SP have made the contest a prestige fight. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited Ayodhya over a dozen times in the past few months and deployed senior ministers to camp there. This underscores the significance he attaches to the Milkipur seat.

‘’A win in Milkipur will send a positive message in the country.. it will, to some extent compensate for the defeat in Faizabad,’’ a senior BJP leader said, while speaking to DH here.

Buoyed after its resounding victory in the recently held bypolls in nine assembly seats in UP of which it won as many as seven, the BJP was confident of a win in the Milkipur bypoll as well.

Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, however, said that the SP would retain the seat and that the BJP would once again taste defeat there. ‘’The chief minister may visit Milkipur hundreds of times but the people will not support his party,’’ Prasad had said.