Milkipur bypoll: BJP’s Hindutva, SP’s PDA at play in Dalit contest
Seven months after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost Faizabad parliamentary seat to the Samajwadi Party, the upcoming by-poll to Milkipur (reserved) assembly constituency, which is part of the Faizabad LS seat, has become a become a battle of prestige for both the parties.
While the SP is leaving no stone unturned in putting its Pichhda, Dalits and Alpsankhyak (PDA) formula to rigorous test and retain the seat, the BJP is playing the Hindutva card to consolidate voters across castes and wrest the seat which it last won in 2017.
For February 5 bypoll, both the SP and the BJP have fielded candidates from the Pasi community, which is dominant here. Majority of voters on the seat are a combination of Dalit, Yadav, Brahmin and Muslim population.
The Milkipur assembly seat fell vacant when sitting SP MLA Awadhesh Prasad won the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 LS polls. His son Ajeet Prasad is now SP candidate from the seat. On the other hand, the BJP has fielded a party cadre Chandrabhan Paswan. Both are from the Pasi caste as the Milkipur reserved constituency has a sizable presence of it. Most of the voters here are Dalits, followed by Yadavs, Brahmins and Muslims.
For the ruling party, the CM-led battery of ministers is visiting Milkipur without fail, convincing people there that the SP is anti-Hindu and that it was due to the efforts of the BJP that a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya became a reality.
“In Milkipur, PDA formula will work in our favour again as it’s an ideology and not limited to any certain caste or religion. If the BJP’s Hindutva politics worked for them, why did they lose in 2022 and 2024 from here?,” says senior SP leader and former MLC Udaiveer Singh.
“The BJP is contesting elections with the help of local administration. Voters are not getting voter slips there. The BJP is hell-bent on cheating in the polls. They know that people will vote against them and that is why they are adopting such tricks. PDA stands firmly with the Samajwadi Party and I am sure we will win,” Singh claims.
Situated barely 120 km off Lucknow, farmers in Pure Rajaram village in Milkipur assembly segment are unable to get sound sleep. Some have also put electric fencing to save their fields full of mustard produce from stray animals. However, caste politics overshadows these local and key issues in the elections in this constituency.
Voters in rural areas were keeping mum about their support to any particular party first, but after talking for a while they became vocal about supporting the right candidate from their caste.
Sitting at a road side tea shop in Pure Rajaram village, Om Prakash, a local, says, “We can’t reveal out vote. It’s a secret. The main issues here are stray animals and unemployment. Both the candidates are from our community and it’s a tough fight. Caste also plays a key role here.”
Sitting next to Om Prakash is Ram Naresh. He says, “We are busy safeguarding our fields and that is our headache. These stray animals are sparing no one’s field. We have to put electric fence in our fields.”
When asked about his choice, Ram Naresh says he will vote for the candidate for whom his community votes as that has been the tradition in the village.
Meanwhile, Karan Yadav, a local in another village named Acchora, says: “Development can only be done only if the MLA from ruling party is elected. It’s good that the BJP has also fielded a Pasi candidate.”
Jwala Singh, who runs a paan shop near BJP election office in Milkipur main market, is quite confident that BJP candidate Chandrabhan Paswan will win by a huge margin. “I am not a BJP supporter but this time Chandrabhan Paswan is winning,” he claims.
A local shopkeeper, Rahul Chauhan however, says, “The SP has a good hold here. This time, contest is close but I am sure Ajeet Prasad (SP candidate) will win comfortably.”
While the SP wants to retain this seat as it will set out the tone for the 2027 UP assembly polls, the BJP is making all efforts to win it to send a message that SC voters are back to its fold and the SP’s PDA strategy has failed.
In the recent past, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has on many occasions alleged that polling officers were shuffled in an attempt to influence the bypoll.
CM Yogi Adityanath has taken the command of Milkipur by-poll campaign in his own hands and has visited the assembly constituency six times so far.
On the other hand, the SP has also sent a number of its senior leaders to the constituency to mobilise support for its candidate. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is expected to hold a roadshow there on February 3, the final day of campaigning. Voting for Milkipur bypoll is scheduled for February 5 and counting of votes will be done on February 8.
