Milkipur Assembly byelection: 30% cast their votes till 11 a.m.

Polling officials carry EVMs ahead of the Milkipur Assembly by-election, in Ayodhya, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Nearly 30 per cent voters cast their votes in the first four hours of polling for the bypoll in Milkipur Assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday (February 5, 2025)

Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm, officials said. According to the Election Commission (EC), 29.86 per cent votes were cast till 11 am.

The fate of 10 candidates in the fray will be decided by the Scheduled Castes (SC)-reserved constituency’s 3,70,829 voters but the main contest is expected to be between Samajwadi Party’s Ajit Prasad and the BJP’s Chandrabhanu Paswan.

The stakes in the bypoll in Milkipur, which is in Ayodhya district, were raised by SP’s Awadhesh Prasad’s surprise win from Faizabad in last year’s Lok Sabha polls that came just months after the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Police refute SP’s allegations

While voting is underway at polling booths, Samajwadi Party leaders alleged that police are checking the identity cards of voters to “create fear” in them.

Talking to reporters, Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad alleged that the BJP wanted to win the election by creating pressure on officers to influence voting.

Ayodhya Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Karan Nayyar categorically refuted the accusations levelled by the Samajwadi Party.

The SSP clarified that the photo in question depicted police personnel verifying the identification credentials of a polling agent, and emphasised that law enforcement officers are not conducting any verification of voters’ identification documents.

Earlier in the morning, IG, Pravin Kumar said, “Voting is going on peacefully at all polling stations. Magistrates and police officers are on patrol. Paramilitary forces have been deployed at important polling stations.” “Strict action will be taken against those spreading rumours or indulging in any other illegal activity,” he added.

There are 255 polling centres and 414 polling stations for the election.

“Webcasting will be conducted at 210 polling stations and videography at 25 stations. Micro-observers are deployed at 71 polling centres, with nine flying squads, nine static surveillance teams, six video surveillance teams, two super zonal magistrates, four zonal magistrates and 41 sector magistrates. Voting will be conducted with the assistance of civil police, PAC, and paramilitary forces,” they said.

More than 1.93 lakh male voters, and over 1.78 lakh female voters and eight third-gender people are registered to vote for the bypoll. There are 4,811 first-time voters in the Assembly constituency.

BSP not in fray, Congress backs SP

While BSP isn’t contesting the bypoll, the Congress is backing its alliance partner SP on the seat. Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) has also fielded a candidate from the seat.

The bypoll was necessitated when SP leader Awadhesh Prasad vacated the Milkipur seat after winning the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Now, even as the SP is looking to retain the seat, the BJP sees the election as an opportunity to avenge its loss in Faizabad. In the 2022 UP Assembly polls, Milkipur was the only assembly seat BJP lost in Ayodhya district.

The two parties had also sent out top leaders to campaign for the bypoll.

Besides the chief minister, UP’s two deputy Chief Ministers — Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak — also campaigned for the BJP candidate. The SP sent its MP from Mainpuri and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav, for a roadshow in Milkipur.