BJP, SP gear up for Milkipur bypoll

Lucknow: With the decks cleared for the bypoll to the Milkipur seat in Ayodhya, the ruling BJP hopes to continue its winning streak while the opposition Samajwadi Party is seeking to retain its hold over the high-profile constituency. The BJP is likely to rely on the Hindu unity pitch through slogans like ‘batenge toh katenge’ (divided we perish) while the SP is expected to bank on its ‘PDA’ plank.

PDA is a coinage that denotes the opposition party’s plan to connect with ‘pichda (OBCs), Dalits, and alpshanyak (minorities)’, the mainstays of the SP’s impressive show in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in UP, when it won 37 Lok Sabha seats against the BJP’s 33. In the just concluded bypolls to nine seats, the BJP reclaimed its prestige, winning six seats, including the SP’s bastions like Kundarki in Moradabad, while its ally RLD won one, making it a hugely impressive 7-2 show.

The two seats that SP retained in the bypolls—the Karhal seat in Mainpuri and Sishamau seat in Kanpur—were won with markedly reduced win margins, which is why the Milkipur contest would be keenly watched. The seat assumes importance as after victory in the Ayodhya parliamentary seat, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav aggressively attacked the BJP, questioning Hindutva politics of the saffron party, and reached Parliament with Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, who had vacated the Milkipur seat on becoming MP.

The bypoll of this seat is due after withdrawal of pleas against the 2022 Milkipur poll in the court.