The BJP, which recently lost the Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat, is focusing its efforts on the Dalit-dominated Milkipur Assembly segment, where by-elections are scheduled as a prestigious by-poll. The EC is yet to sound the poll bell as the seat fell vacant after Awadhesh Prasad, the former MLA, got elected to Parliament, but the pre-poll preparations are in full swing.
As workers began preparing for Adityanath’s second visit within two weeks to Ayodhya to muster support, the BJP worker said:
‘‘This is more than a typical bypoll; this is all about the image of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. ’’
The BJP was defeated in the Faizabad constituency of UP, including the sacred city of Ayodhya. In Ambedkar Nagar, the Samajwadi Party’s Awadhesh Prasad defeated the sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh by a margin of more than 54000 despite being unable to tap into the Ram Temple appeal that the party has been aggressively promoting for years even if it did not quite manage it when it comes to issues of employment and price rise.
Analysts pointed out that although “Mission Milkipur” could rekindle BJP fortunes, it is not a straight contest now that some of the candidates joined from the Samajwadi Party, as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party, and Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party. It is all the more so as the regional balance of power changes and the electoral struggle begins.
