Winning candidate from Faizabad seat Awadhesh Prasad.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
By-election is to be held in Milkipur, the seat vacated by Awadhesh Prasad. After the defeat in Faizabad, this seat has become a matter of prestige for the BJP. On the other hand, since this seat belongs to SP, there is already a psychological pressure on SP. For the by-election, many contenders have emerged in the BJP from the Milkipur assembly constituency of the district. These include former MLAs, district panchayat members and village headmen. Most names have come from the Pasi community. If SP also fields a candidate from the Pasi community, then a candidate from another caste can also be considered.
After Awadhesh Prasad, who was an MLA from the Milkipur seat of the district, was elected as an MP, a by-election is now to be held here. Senior SP leader Prasad has also resigned from the membership of the Legislative Assembly. Now the Election Commission has to announce the by-election. With this, the BJP, which faced defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, has started making movements with the aim of capturing this seat once again.
By the way, Baba Gorakhnath, a former MLA from here, is assuming his candidature to be certain. It is a different matter that the party has not finalized anything yet. Anyway, Gorakhnath was defeated by SP’s Awadhesh Prasad by 12,923 votes in the 2022 assembly elections. After this, even in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, Gorakhnath could not make party candidate Lallu Singh win this seat. BJP had to face defeat here by 7,733 votes. Gorakhnath was elected MLA for the first time by winning 28,076 votes in the 2017 assembly elections.
The names of several candidates surfaced
Meanwhile, apart from Gorakhnath, the names that have emerged as contenders for the ticket include former MLA Ramu Priyadarshi, Neeraj Kanaujia, District General Secretary Kashiram Rawat who has RSS background, Radheshyam Tyagi, Chandrabhanu Paswan, Lakshmi Rawat and District Panchayat member Bablu Pasi. Many of them belong to the Pasi community. Due to many contenders from this community, it will be a bit difficult for the party to select a name. In such a situation, a face from another community can also be tried. At present, the organization has started considering all the names and exploring the possibilities of victory and defeat of the contenders.
