With focus on Dalit votes, both BJP, SP hit the ground running to win Milkipur by-poll

Lucknow: Which way will the Dalit vote swing in Ayodhya’s Milkipur assembly seat, where the by-election is due on Feb 5?

The question has gained much pertinence since the Mayawati-led BSP decided to move out of the fray, stoking a direct electoral square-off between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party in the highly watched assembly seat situated within the Hindutva nerve centre.

With the defeat at the hands of SP in Ayodhya during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections still fresh in its mind, the BJP think tank is learnt to have hit the ground running.

The party has enlisted a battery of local Dalit leaders to mobilise the SC bloc, which accounts for around 27% of the electorate in the reserved constituency. This includes Pushpendra Pasi, a Dalit, who will function as the Milkipur assembly seat convener. He will work in close coordination with district general secretaries, Radhey Shyam Tyagi and Shailendra Kori – both happen to be Kori Dalit – to carry out ground-level campaigns in SC-dominated booths.

Likewise, Ayodhya’s district secretary Kashiram Rawat, a Pasi, has also been deputed on the job along with his team.

The organisational team of BJP Dalit functionaries will work in synergy with the team of six UP ministers – Surya Pratap Shahi, Swatantradev Singh, JPS Rathore, Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, Girish Yadav, and Satish Sharma – deputed by CM Yogi Adityanath.

Not surprisingly, the Milkipur poll battle is set to emerge as a contest of prestige for both BJP and SP.

Analysts said that the result of the by-election would potentially have a larger bearing on the upcoming elections, including the high-stakes 2027 assembly elections.

The BJP has won the seat only once in the past, in 2017 when its candidate Baba Gorakhnath defeated SP’s Awdhesh Prasad by a margin of around 28,000 votes. BSP’s Ram Gopal Kori then cornered around 46,000 votes.

Prasad, who won the seat in 2012, wrested the seat back in the 2022 assembly elections by defeating Gorakhnath by a margin of around 10,000 votes. BSP’s Mira Devi then bagged over 14,000 votes. Prasad eventually vacated Milkipur after winning the Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat in 2024.

This time the SP has decided to field Awdhesh Prasad’s son Ajit, while the BJP is keeping its cards close to its chest.

Sources said that the party is weighing all options to counter the SP, which has been flagging its tried and tested Pichhda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (PDA) poll narrative that is credited with punching the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and pulling down its tally from 63 to 33.

Both Prasad and BJP’s former candidate Gorakhnath belong to the Pasi community, the Dalit sub-caste which has a sizable population in the constituency.

Besides Pasi, the seat has a good chunk of Kori, another Dalit sub-caste. Jatav and Kannaujia (Dhobi), too, have a reasonable population in the constituency flanked by Amethi’s Jagdishpur and Sultanpur Sadar assembly seats on one side and Ayodhya’s Rudauli and Bikapur on the other. The constituency, in all, has over 3.70 lakh voters as per the revised voter list.

BJP Ayodhya metropolitan president Kamlesh Srivastava said that the party organisation has started working full throttle at the ground level to mobilise the voters. “We are taking BJP’s developmental agenda to the people,” he said.

The Samajwadi Party, too, is not leaving any stone unturned to bolster its chances in Milkipur after facing a crushing defeat in seven out of nine assembly seats, including Muslim-dominated Kundarki, in the recently held by-elections.

SP district president in Ayodhya, Paras Nath Yadav, told TOI that the party was essentially relying on its organisational strength and the popularity of its leadership. “We are reaching out to all sections of society, including Dalits, OBC, and Muslims in the constituency,” he said.

The Samajwadi Party Ambedkar Vahini, a Dalit group of SP, too, has been pressed into duty. Vahini general secretary Ram Babu Sudarshan said that a team of two dozen functionaries have been asked to carry out a public contact campaign at the ground level.

The seat also has a substantial presence of OBCs, including Yadav, Maurya, and Pal, who are being equally eyed by the BJP and the SP.

The upper caste, too, forms a sizable chunk in the constituency. In fact, communities like Brahmin, Thakur, Vaishya, and Kayastha have traditionally been voting in favour of the BJP since the 1990s when the Ram Temple movement peaked. Analysts said that both BJP and the SP are expected to step up the outreach to OBC and upper caste, which play a crucial role in deciding the poll outcomes.

Courtesy : TOI

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