BJP upbeat after resounding victory in Milkipur bypoll
The defeat in the last General Election, to say the least, was perplexing to the BJP, coming merely five months after the grand Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya
Lucknow: The BJP’s resounding victory in the bypoll in Milkipur may now put an end to the sallies it was scorched with ever since its humiliating defeat eight months ago on the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat. The loss then, suffered at the district which was the epicentre of the party’s mega overture to its Hindu votebank, all but flustered its top brass.
The Samajwadi Party, which won the Ayodhya seat, let go of no chance to rub in the insult. Its chief Akhilesh Yadav flaunted Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, the first Dalit to win the seat, as a trophy, and made him sit in the front row of Parliament alongside Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
All the same, it is now apparent that BJP didn’t like taking it lying down. It quickly reworked the poll dynamics and catalysed the cadre’s spirits with clever campaigning.
“Ayodhya ka badla le liya (avenged Faizabad loss),” was the party workers’ refrain after the win. Surya Pratap Shahi, the BJP in-charge of Ayodhya, interpreted the win as a people-inspired “course correction” after the 2024 shocker. Chandrabhanu Paswan, 38, won the Milkipur by-poll by a margin of 61,710 votes, defeating his closest rival Samajwadi Party’s Ajit Prasad, 42.
Both parties had put up Pasi — a key Dalit subcaste in the region — candidates in the by-poll. The defeat in the last general election, to say the least, was perplexing to the BJP, coming merely five months after the grand Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya. Its troubles compounded with the SP’s allegation that it had in mind scrapping of the Dalit and OBC reservation.
The changed circumstances forced the BJP to replace its customary narrative of brute force Hindutva with a relatively sombre secular practice of distribution of Constitution copies under its ‘Samvidhan Gaurav Samman’ initiative. “We went door-to-door, felicitating the community members and giving them a copy of the Constitution as proof of our leadership’s unwavering commitment to them.
Dalits and OBCs realised that they had been taken for a ride in 2024, and our party’s big win now proves as much,” UP BJP secretary Abhijat Mishra told PTI.
Another BJP functionary conceded, “The taunts were frequent as, despite winning a third consecutive election at the Centre under the dynamic leadership of PM Narendra Modi, the Ayodhya loss would frequently unsettle us during discussions.”
The party, he said, was also hard-pressed to counter the “anti-Dalit propaganda” of the opposition and prove that SP’s Faizabad win was just an aberration. “It was a prestige poll, and CM Yogi Adityanath led from the front,” a party leader added. The Milkipur win also found a mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory speech after the BJP winning the Delhi polls.
“Our win margin in Milkipur was more than that of SP’s in Faizabad in 2024. That showed the faith people have in BJP leadership,” Chandrabhanu said. UP Minorities Minister Danish Azad Ansari said even Muslims voted for the BJP. “I campaigned in Milkipur, where there are about 38,000 Muslims, many of whom also backed us there due to policies of the double-engine government.
But tell me a single Samajwadi Party meeting where Congress leaders were seen sharing the stage.
You saw how AAP and Congress fought against each other in Delhi, and SP backed AAP over Congress there. This alliance is coming apart,” he said.
