THE GHOSI REVELATIONS

The recent assembly bypoll loss in Ghosi in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh has come as a setback for the ruling BJP. 

- Prashant Srivastava

UTTAR PRADESH ASSEMBLY BYPOLL

Party candidate Dara Singh Chauhan, who was the sitting Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA before his flight to the BJP, lost to the candidate of his former party, Sudhakar Singh, by a fairly massive margin of 42,759 votes. More than the specifics of the case, it's the general truth they reveal that offers the party food for thought ahead of 2024. A likely delay in a planned cabinet expansion, flowing as a consequence, is also reflective of a certain introspective turn.

A minister in the first term of the Yogi Adityananth government, Chauhan had left to join the SP just before the 2022 assembly polls. But with the SP losing the big contest, he resigned his assembly membership and rejoined the BJP in July. A source in the BJP local unit says there was a backlash against Chauhan since he was "constantly changing loyalties". The other relevant fact is that Sudhakar, a former MLA, is a native of Ghosi.