After the BJP’s defeat in the Lok Sabha election from the Faizabad seat, home to the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, the Milkipur constituency has attracted significant attention. The party has turned the Milkipur by-poll into a high-stakes prestige battle. In the 2025 by-polls, BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan is leading with 14,339 votes, ahead of his nearest rival, Ajit Prasad of the Samajwadi Party, from Uttar Pradesh’s Milkipur Assembly constituency. After 25 rounds of counting, according to the ECI trends, this indicates that the BJP is set to win the seat.
The by-election in Milkipur was triggered after Samajwadi Party MP Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat following his victory in the Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha election last year.
The constituency recorded a voter turnout of 57.13 per cent in the election held on February 5. Tight security has been deployed in the constituency on the counting day.
Awadhesh Prasad’s son, Ajit Prasad, has now been fielded by the SP’s against a BJP candidate in the Milkipur Vidhan Sabha by-poll.
“The security is complete and the paramilitary forces were deployed 24/7,” Ayodhya DM Chandra Vijay Singh told ANI.
Milkipur assembly seat is a Scheduled Castes (SC) reserved constituency for both parties. In the 2022 Assembly elections, SP’s Awadhesh Prasad defeated BJP’s incumbent MLA, Gorakhnath, in Milkipur and secured the victory.
Awadhesh Prasad also secured a significant victory over BJP’s sitting MP, Lallu Singh, with a margin of 54,567 votes. This loss was a major blow to the BJP, coming just months after the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
On Thursday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of bringing in party workers from neighboring districts to manipulate the Milkipur by-elections through fake voting.
(With ANI inputs)