New Delhi:
BJP on Tuesday announced the name of its candidate for Milkipur assembly seat of Ayodhya. BJP has given ticket to Chandrabhanu Paswan. SP has made Ajit Prasad, son of Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, its candidate from here. With this, the by-election of Milkipur assembly seat reserved for Scheduled Castes has become quite interesting. The reason for this is that SP and BJP candidates belong to the same caste. Both of them belong to Pasi caste. In Milkipur, which has about 3.5 lakh voters, Pasi caste has the highest number of voters, about 60 thousand. Congress has supported the SP candidate in this election. BSP has announced not to contest this by-election. In such a situation, the contest for Milkipur will be fought between BJP and SP.
Who is Chandrabhanu Paswan?
BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan is a resident of Rudauli. He is a businessman by profession. His wife Kanchan Paswan is a member of the District Panchayat. He will contest assembly elections for the first time. There were many candidates from BJP for ticket in Milkipur, reserved for Scheduled Caste, but BJP chose Chandrabhanu Paswan of Pasi caste. BJP’s attempt was to divide the votes of Pasi caste in Milkipur. There are about one lakh Dalits in Milkipur, in which the population of Pasi caste is the highest. This vote bank has been a major basis for the victory of Awadhesh Prasad. In such a situation, BJP has decided to defeat SP by dividing it. In case both the candidates are from the same caste, there will be division in this vote bank. This area of ​​Uttar Pradesh is Pasi dominated. That’s why no one, be it BJP or SP, ignores this caste. BJP has also been trying to retain the vote bank of this caste for a long time. Keeping this in view, BJP had given six tickets to this caste with a population of 65 lakh in the Lok Sabha elections.
Chandrabhanu Paswan engaged in campaigning after announcing his candidature for Milkipur by-election.
One thing that SP can make an issue of is Chandrabhanu Paswan being an outsider. He is a resident of Rudauli. Whereas SP candidate Ajit Prasad is a resident of Milkipur. But by making Chandrabhanu Paswan its candidate, BJP has in a way ended the factionalism at the local level. By giving ticket to a local from Milkipur, other ticket claimants could have given rise to factionalism, but now this may not happen.
What is Samajwadi Party trying?
Samajwadi Party’s effort is to stop the division of Dalit votes. That’s why she is making Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comment on Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar an issue. Whereas SP is already working on the issue of backward-Dalit-minority, but in Milkipur, Bijnor MP Chandrashekhar’s Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) has also fielded its candidate. Chandrashekhar’s vote bank is also Dalits and Muslims. This may lead to further division of Dalit votes in Milkipur. Azad Samaj Party has made Satosh Kumar alias Suraj Chaudhary its candidate from Milkipur. In such a situation, whether SP’s strategy will be successful or SP’s in Milkipur, it will be known on February 8, when the results of the by-election will come.
Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad campaigning in Milkipur.
In Milkipur, apart from Pasi, among the Dalit castes, there are about 13 thousand Kori voters and more than 15 thousand Chamar voters. Apart from these, among the backward castes, there are about 50 thousand Yadavs, about 25 thousand Barai or Chaurasia, five thousand Pal and slightly more Maurya voters than Pal. Yadav is also quite influential here. Before Milkipur became a Scheduled Caste reservation, Yadav had won the MLA election five times. These include Mitrasen Yadav, who was once a strong leader of CPI. At the same time, the number of Muslims is also more than 25 thousand. Yadavs and Muslims are the core vote bank of SP in UP. If we talk about upper castes, then about 75 thousand Brahmins are on this assembly seat. This society is considered the core voter of BJP. Apart from Brahmins, Rajputs and Vaishya-Banias are also present in good numbers in Milkipur. Considering this division of voters, the battle for Milkipur is being predicted to be difficult.
Who has been ahead in Milkipur
In the 2022 assembly elections, Awadhesh Prasad of SP had defeated Gorakhnath of BJP by 12 thousand 923 votes in Milkipur. Whereas in the Lok Sabha elections held last year, SP had given ticket to Awadhesh Prasad from Faizabad seat. He had defeated BJP’s Lallu Singh by a margin of more than 55 thousand votes. In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Lallu Singh was behind SP’s Awadhesh Prasad by seven thousand 733 votes in Milkipur seat. After this Awadhesh Prasad had resigned from the membership of the Assembly. For this reason, elections are being held there. Voting will be held in Milkypur on February 5. The counting of votes will be done on February 8. The last date for nomination in Milkipur is January 17.
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