Voting is underway for the bypoll in Ayodhya’s Milkipur assembly constituency, a high-stakes battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). The SP, which surprised many by winning the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in the last general elections, is aiming to retain this key seat.

Milkipur, a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes, is witnessing a direct contest between BJP’s Chandrabhanu Paswan and SP’s Ajit Prasad. The by-poll was necessitated after its sitting MLA, Awadhesh Prasad, won the Faizabad parliamentary seat, which includes Ayodhya city. Prasad, a nine-time SP legislator, had defeated BJP’s Lallu Singh by a margin of 54,567 votes.

Tight Security Amidst Polling

Inspector General (IG) of Ayodhya Range, Praveen Kumar, assured that polling is being conducted peacefully. “Magistrates and police officials are patrolling the area, with paramilitary forces deployed at critical polling stations. Strict action will be taken against those spreading rumors or engaging in unlawful activities,” he told ANI.

Previous Bypoll Performance and Voter Demographics

In previous by-elections across nine assembly seats, the BJP won six, SP secured two, and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) claimed one (Meerapur).

Milkipur has over 3.71 lakh registered voters, including 1.93 lakh men, 1.78 lakh women, and eight third-gender individuals. Additionally, 4,811 first-time voters are participating in this poll.

Political Alliances and Campaign Efforts

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has opted out of the poll, while the Congress is supporting its INDIA bloc ally, the Samajwadi Party. The Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) has also fielded a candidate.

In a heated campaign battle, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak campaigned for the BJP candidate. The SP countered with a roadshow led by Dimple Yadav, SP MP from Mainpuri and wife of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.