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The Election Commission’s (EC) decision to put on hold the much-awaited bypoll for the Milkipur Assembly seat in the Ayodhya district over an election-related petition by a former BJP MLA has put the BJP on the backfoot, with the Opposition alleging that the bypoll has been delayed because the BJP is “afraid of losing again” in Ayodhya.
After the BJP’s recent defeat to the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, where Ayodhya and the Ram Temple are located, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is now directly monitoring the nine Assembly bypolls that were announced on Tuesday, in addition to Milkipur, which has become a prestige seat for the BJP. Adityanath has held at least four meetings to reach out to beneficiaries and party cadres over the past month-and-a-half, while several state ministers have been regularly camping in the constituency.
To counter the Opposition’s narrative on Milkipur, the BJP has not only asked its former Milkipur MLA Baba Goraknath to withdraw his petition over alleged irregularities in the 2022 Assembly elections for the seat, but also sent a delegation of senior party leaders to meet the EC and request it to schedule the Milkipur bypoll along with the other UP bypolls.
“I had filed this petition in 2022 against (former Milkipur MLA and Faizabad MP) Awadhesh (Prasad) ji, as it had come out that the notary paper on which he had given his affidavit was by a lawyer whose license had expired six years back. It was a serious issue, thus I had approached the court with an election petition,” explains Gorakhnath, who had contested the 2022 Assembly polls as a BJP candidate but lost to the SP’s Prasad by 13,000 votes. Prasad won the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat earlier this year and resigned as an MLA to necessitate the bypoll.
The petition had been pending since 2022, with neither a stay on Prasad’s election nor a judgment from the court.
Gorakhnath, who is one of the primary contenders for the BJP ticket in Milkipur, further said, “I had requested the court to put a stay on the oath of Awadhesh Prasad then. While it did not happen, the court did send notices to the concerned parties. The petition was pending but since Awadhesh ji resigned as MLA after he became an MP, my application automatically became null.”
Gorakhnath’s withdrawal petition had been listed for hearing in the Allahabad High Court on Thursday. “Our preparations are ready on the seat. We had no idea that the election would be postponed because of my application, thus my lawyer filed in the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court to withdraw the petition.”
On Thursday, however, the Allahabad HC set the next hearing for 15 days later, which makes it unlikely that Milkipur will hold its bypoll along with the other nine UP Assembly seats on November 13. Gorakhnath said that despite wanting to withdraw his petition, the SP is opposing it because it “does not want the Milkipur bypoll to take place along with the other seats”.
“The counsel who appeared for Awadhesh Prasad vehemently opposed our withdrawal application and argued that the matter should not be withdrawn and the opposition of all the parties to be recorded before the court and only then can the petition be withdrawn.” Gorakhnath said.
However, Prasad claimed Gorakhnath had four months to withdraw his petition after the former was elected to the Lok Sabha and resigned as an MLA. “I resigned from the Assembly on June 12 after I became an MP on June 4. They had four months to withdraw their application,” he said.
The BJP’s district leaders said that while they were aware of the petition, they did not expect the EC to put the bypoll on hold over it. But both the SP and Congress have taken repeated jibes at the BJP, claiming it was “afraid to lose” in Ayodhya again, forcing the saffron party to ask Gorakhnath to withdraw his petition.
“The CM has directly taken control of this seat, which has become an issue of national prestige for them. Ministers had been camping here. The CM himself has held various rallies already but their survey report had told them that they are losing again and that is why they have resorted to such a conspiracy,” Awadhesh Prasad said.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, too, had attacked the BJP. “Jisne jung taali hai, samjho usne jung hari hai (The one who gets the battle postponed, is the one who has conceded defeat),” he said.
Gorakhnath had won the Milkipur seat in the 2017 Assembly polls to give the BJP its first victory in the seat since 1991. In recent elections, the SP has been the dominant party in this seat – since 1998, the party has won five of the seven polls held in Milkipur, including two bypolls.
Of the five Assembly seats that fall under the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, Milkipur was the only one the BJP lost in 2022. However, in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the SP managed to win the Faizabad seat after the BJP won it in the last two elections.
