SP's Ajeet Prasad to file paper for Milkipur bypoll today

BJP fields Chandrabhan Paswan to wrest Ayodhya district's Milkipur assembly seat, which has a sizeable presence of Pasi voters, against the SP's Ajeet Prasad, son of influential veteran leader and Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad

- HT Correspondent

LUCKNOW: Keeping the caste equations in mind and looking to galvanise the party cadre, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday declared Chandrabhan Paswan, who is not a big name but an "aam karyakarta" (ordinary party worker), as its candidate for the Milkipur assembly bypoll in Ayodhya district to challenge the dominance of the Samajwadi Party in the seat and neutralise the Pasi factor.

The Samajwadi Party has won the Milkipur assembly seat six times, including twice in by-elections, and its candidate Ajeet Prasad belongs to the Pasi caste while his father Awadhesh Prasad, a veteran SP leader with considerable political aura in the constituency, is the sitting Faizabad MP and former MLA from Milkipur. Ajeet Prasad will file his nomination on Wednesday.

For the BJP, wresting the Milkipur reserved assembly seat from the Samajwadi Party has become a matter of prestige after losing the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat to Awadesh Prasad in the 2024 parliamentary elections.

Several local leaders of the BJP were in contention for the party ticket from Milkipur. Initially, former MLA Baba Gorakhnath, who won the Milkipur seat for the BJP in 2017, was the front-runner.

A survey conducted by the BJP found that around 34% of the people preferred Chandrabhan Paswan while only 14% opted for Baba Gorakhnath, who had won the Milkipur seat in 2017 assembly polls but lost to Awadhesh Prasad in 2022, according to party insiders.

Among more than six probables for the ticket, the party zeroed in on Chandrabhan Paswan due to several factors, caste being the main reason.

The Milkipur reserved constituency has a sizable presence of the Pasi caste and a majority of them have been voting for the Samajwadi Party in the past several elections.

The Pasis have been rallying behind the Samajwadi Party due to Awadesh Prasad, the SP MP from Faizabad lok sabha seat.