While by-elections to the 10 vacant Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh are yet to be announced, the contest for Milkipur constituency has begun in earnest, with charges of assault and an FIR entering the race.
For both the BJP and Samajwadi Party, winning Milkipur is a matter of prestige. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP lost Faizabad, which holds the Ayodhya Ram Temple. The SP winner, Dalit leader Awadhesh Pradesh, was the sitting MLA from Milkipur, which falls under the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat.
While the BJP wants to save face by wresting Milkipur now, the SP wants to retain it to make the “humiliation” of the BJP complete.
Neither of the two parties has announced its Milkipur candidate yet, but Prasad has indicated that the SP ticket would go to his son Ajit Prasad. In recent days, Ajit has found himself facing an FIR alleging assault and kidnapping from Ravi Kumar Tiwari. The BJP has been calling it an example of Ajit’s “goondaism”, with the fact that Tiwari is a Brahmin adding a caste angle to the case.
On Monday, BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya got into the act, posting on X: “The son of the Faizabad MP, whom Akhilesh has been holding close to his heart, had kidnapped Ravi Tiwari and beaten him up.” The BJP leader also alleged that incidents of rape and hooliganism have “increased since the SP’s Lok Sabha victory”.
The SP calls the whole episode “political vendetta” by the BJP, driven by “the fear of loss”. “The BJP is doing this out of frustration and fear of losing the seat. The repeated visits of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and ministers to the constituency show that they are jittery. This (filing of the FIR against Ajit) is a smaller version of the misuse of the CBI and ED,” SP spokesperson and former Ayodhya MLA Pawan Pandey said.
Prasad has announced a protest on October 1 to highlight the BJP’s “atrocities against the deprived classes”. Ajit, who has been touring the constituency, has not commented on the FIR registered against him.
While the SP is yet to officially declare Ajit as its candidate, Prasad claims that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had approved his candidature from Milkipur after consultations with party cadre.
Local SP leaders say Ajit was to make his political debut in the 2017 Assembly polls from Jagdishpur in Amethi, but could not as the seat went to the Congress in the seat-sharing between the two parties.
The Dalit vs Brahmin line in the FIR, which related to the alleged incident that occurred in Faizabad City on Saturday afternoon after a dispute between Ajit and Prasad over commission in a land purchase case, is significant as the Milkipur segment – which Prasad represented till he won the Lok Sabha polls – has a significant SC population, but also a substantial number of Brahmins. At around a lakh in the seat, Brahmins, in fact, match the dominant SC groups of Pasis and Koris in numbers, and are seen as holding the key to the electoral outcome there.
A significant chunk of the Brahmin community is believed to have supported Prasad, who belongs to the Pasi community, in the recent Lok Sabha as well as the 2022 Assembly polls. Further, the Koris may not rally en masse behind the SP as the BSP is planning to field a candidate from the community.
Additionally, the SP-Congress front has not got its act together yet, with the Congress flexing its muscle post the Lok Sabha results and preparing for all 10 bypoll seats. In Milkipur, it has appointed grassroots Brahmin worker Sanjay Tiwari as its media incharge. “We are preparing on the ground. While talks of alliance are held among top leaders, we are reaching out to all communities,” he told The Indian Express.
The BJP is running on a united Hindu plank, with Adityanath repeatedly emphasizing, “Batenge to tenge (divided we fall)”.
Pandey dismissed the notion that Brahmins may support the BJP due to the FIR against Ajit. “During the SP regime, Brahmins were not targeted as they are now in fake encounters. We are confident they will support us like they have done in the past,” he said.