In a huge setback to the caste based PDA political plank of the Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan won the Milkipur bypoll by a margin of 61,710 votes.
He defeated his nearest Samajwadi Party rival Ajit Kumar, son of SP’s Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad. While Chandrabhanu Paswan polled over 1.46 lakh votes, his nearest rival Samajwadi Party’s Ajit Prasad garnered 84,687 votes.
Earlier, Paswan, took a decisive lead over SP’s Prasad, by over 61,000 votes after the 29th round of counting for the Milkipur assembly bypoll on Saturday, officials said.
According to the Election Commission after 29 rounds, BJP’s Paswan had got 1,45,685 votes, while Prasad had polled 84,266 votes, a lead of 61,319 votes. After 28 rounds of counting, Paswan (with 1,39,507 votes) was leading Prasad (79,210 votes) by a margin of 60,297 votes. Santosh Kumar of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) got 5,158 votes.
The SP fielded Ajit Prasad, son of Awadhesh Prasad in the bypoll even as BJP opted for a party cadre Paswan, both from the Pasi community.
While the SP was anxious to retain the seat it won in 2022 UP polls, the BJP was anxious to avenge its Faizabad loss that had happened within five months of the high-profile consecration of Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Before the counting began, Paswan offered prayers at a temple.
Later as trends firmed, Paswan said that he was grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for their guidance and support. He also expressed his gratitude to voters.
“We took the welfare programmes and schemes of the double-engine BJP government to the people of Milkipur and they supported us. We will not leave any stone unturned for the development of Milkipur,” Paswan said.
SP MP Awadhesh Prasad, who had earlier said he was confident of a win for his son, accused the BJP government of misusing official machinery.
“Officials worked under pressure from the state government. The BJP has been involved in large-scale irregularities,” he alleged.
“`The Election Commission and observers were informed about them in writing but no action was taken,” he added.