The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced its candidate for Milkipur by-Assembly elections, who will face Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Awadesh Prasad's son Ajit Prasad in the high-stakes poll battle in the state.
The BJP has fielded Chandrabhan Paswan as its candidate for Milkipur bypolls. He is a lawyer by profession and had been a top contender for BJP's candidature from the seat. Fielding him from the constituency settles all speculations and also sets the stage for a high-voltage clash with the SP nominee.
Milkipur comes to be seen as another prestige battle between the ruling BJP and Opposition SP, in the wake of by-elections in nine Assembly seats in November 2024, which saw a poll blitzkrieg between the two parties.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has already declared its decision not to contest the elections, and with Congress not giving it a fight, it would turn out to be a direct competition between Yogi Adityanath's BJP and Akhilesh Yadav's SP. The latter would be desperate to get the revenge of bypolls defeat, and BJP would be more interested in converting this as yet another opportunity to further entrench itself.
Significantly, the Milkipur Assembly seat was vacated as the sitting MLA, Awadhesh Prasad, resigned. Prasad won the parliamentary elections and resigned from the Milkipur Assembly seat, thereby requiring a by-election in the seat.
The Milkipur bypolls are also significant as SP's Awadesh Prasad defeated BJP's Lallu Singh in Ayodhya (Faizabad) Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The poll loss had sent alarm bells ringing in the BJP circles as the elections were held soon after the opening of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya, with wide belief that the BJP was headed for a clean sweep in the land of Lord Ram.
Polling is slated for February 5 while results will be announced on February 8, along with Delhi Assembly election results.
The seat of the Assembly in Ayodhya will witness fierce campaigning by both BJP and SP leaders as the two parties will go whole hog to outsmart each other and settle the 'Ayodhya battle'.