The recovery of the unclothed body of a 22-year-old missing Dalit woman from a canal in Ayodhya has provided ammunition to the Opposition parties to target the BJP ahead of the February 5 Milkipur Assembly by-election.

Police, who recovered the body on Saturday, have confirmed that it bore deep wounds and fractures and the eyes had been gouged out.

The deceased’s family has alleged gang rape and murder but the police have not yet identified or arrested anyone in connection with the case.

“I fainted after seeing her condition when we found her in a canal around 500 metres from our house. There were deep injury marks and her leg was broken. It is a case of gang rape, torture and murder,” the victim’s elder sister said, adding that the victim was missing since Thursday night.

Circle officer Ashutosh Tiwari said: “We had registered the missing report on Friday and sent the body for post-mortem. We are probing the case.”

Crying inconsolably before the media on Sunday, Samajwadi Party MP from Ayodhya Awadhesh Prasad said he would resign if such incidents were not stopped by the Yogi Adityanath government.

“The family members of the woman had reported to the police that she was missing but they didn’t do anything. The brutality inflicted on our daughter is unbearable. There is no meaning of being in Parliament if such incidents take place in my constituency,” said the MP.

Awadhesh’s son Ajit Prasad is contesting the bypoll from Milkipur in Ayodhya district against the BJP’s Chandrabhan Paswan. The seat had fallen vacant following Awadhesh’s resignation after his election as an MP last year.

“I’ll visit Delhi soon and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Let me see if he does justice to the victim’s family and the people of Ayodhya. I’ll resign if he doesn’t act on this issue. It is a big issue in the country now,” Awadhesh said.

This by-election is a prestige battle for Adityanath because many senior BJP leaders had blamed him when the party lost the Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the Ram temple in January last year. Several BJP leaders had accused Adityanath of arrogance and blamed him for ignoring the party and depending on government officers.

A wary Adityanath visited the Milkipur constituency on Sunday to campaign for the seventh time in the last two months. At least a dozen state ministers are camping there and conducting door-to-door campaigns.

Addressing a rally in Milkipur, Adityanath said: “The government is taking the case seriously. The culprit must be punished. But the SP MP is doing drama.”

Later, he spoke to the family of the victim over the phone. Priyanka Maurya, a member of the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Women also met them.

Taking up the issue on X, Rahul Gandhi said: “The inhumanity and brutal murder of a Dalit girl in Ayodhya is heartbreaking and very shameful. If the administration had paid heed to the cry for help of the girl’s family that had been echoing for three days, perhaps her life could have been saved.”

“Another daughter’s life has ended due to this heinous crime. For how long and how many families will have to cry and suffer like this? The anti-Bahujan BJP rule, especially in Uttar Pradesh, is resulting in rising the heinous atrocities, injustice and murder of Dalits,” he added.