The Milkipur bypoll was necessitated after the seat was vacated by former MLA Awadhesh Prasad, who won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Faizabad.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a decisive victory in the Milkipur Assembly bypolls, with its candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan defeating Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Ajit Prasad by a significant margin of 61,710 votes. This election, considered a battle of prestige, witnessed a thumping win for the BJP, further cementing its political dominance.
Following the victory, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took a sharp jab at the opposition, asserting that the people’s mandate had effectively put an end to the “politics of lies and loot.”
Speaking on Friday, he said, “The results of the Milkipur by-election will put a full stop to the politics of ‘pariwarwad’ (dynastic politics) and deceit. The people have sent a clear message that, regardless of the propaganda spread by the Samajwadi Party, the public will hold them accountable.”
The Chief Minister extended his congratulations to BJP workers for their triumph in Milkipur, crediting the party’s success to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the development initiatives undertaken under his leadership. The victory was seen as a reaffirmation of the people’s trust in the BJP’s governance model.
The BJP’s resounding success in Milkipur comes as a major setback for the Samajwadi Party, which has struggled to retain its foothold in Uttar Pradesh. The bypoll results marked a significant blow to the SP, as it failed to defend its existing seats, casting doubts over the effectiveness of its PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak) strategy. While the SP had gained momentum in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the bypoll results have contradicted that narrative, reinforcing the BJP’s stronghold in the state.
The Milkipur bypoll was necessitated after the seat was vacated by former MLA Awadhesh Prasad, who won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Faizabad, a constituency that also includes the Ayodhya Assembly segment. The BJP’s loss in Faizabad, despite the consecration of the Ram Temple, had made the Milkipur bypoll a crucial battle for the party. However, it managed to turn the tide, with Chandrabhanu Paswan securing 1,46,397 votes, while Ajit Prasad lagged significantly with only 84,687 votes.
In response to the results, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of electoral malpractice, alleging that the ruling party had “misused” government machinery to tilt the outcome in its favour.
Taking to social media platform X, he wrote, “The BJP cannot counter the growing strength of the PDA through votes alone, which is why they resort to manipulating the electoral process. The level of administrative influence required to rig a bypoll may be achievable in a single constituency, but such fraudulent tactics will not work in all 403 Assembly seats. Even BJP members are aware of this, which is why they had delayed the Milkipur bypoll.”
Yadav further claimed, “This is a hollow victory that the BJP will never be able to celebrate with a clear conscience. Their guilt and fear of future electoral defeat will haunt them.”
Countering these allegations, BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla told The Sunday Guardian that the Milkipur victory was a clear rejection of Yadav’s PDA strategy by the people of Uttar Pradesh. He said people of Milkipur have voted for BJP and the development work done by Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh. He credited the triumph to the BJP’s “double-engine government” and its achievements over the past seven and a half years, emphasising that voters had reaffirmed their support for the party’s governance.
Meanwhile, Javed Ali Khan, Rajya Sabha MP of SP, while speaking to The Sunday Guardian reiterated allegations of electoral malpractice, accusing the BJP of leveraging state machinery, including law enforcement and administrative resources, to influence the election outcome. He also raised concerns over the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). He further stated that despite several complaints, the Election Commission had not taken any action against the BJP. Khan said that in the coming days, they would decide whether to move to court regarding the results. He argued that the BJP would not have won any seats without such influence. Downplaying the significance of the bypolls, Khan maintained that they would have little impact on the broader political landscape and expressed confidence in the SP’s resurgence in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.