The BJP has won the Milkipur Assembly by-election in Uttar Pradesh, marking a personal and political redemption for chief minister Yogi Adityanath who had turned it into a prestige battle for the party and himself.

Milkipur falls in the Lok Sabha constituency of Faizabad-Ayodhya, the historical epicentre of BJP politics, which the party had lost to the Samajwadi Party in last summer’s general election, suffering a huge political embarrassment.

The defeat also turned into a personal blow for Adityanath, with his intra-party opponents pinning the blame on him and undermining the chief minister before the central leadership, leaving him searching for a way to redeem himself.

Milkipur offered the perfect opportunity. It was the constituency represented by Awadhesh Prasad, the BJP’s conqueror from Faizabad-Ayodhya, and had fallen vacant after he resigned as MLA to shift to the Lok Sabha. The Samajwadis fielded his son Ajit Prasad in the by-election, turning the symbolism up a notch.

Saturday’s victory of BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan, who has defeated Ajit by about 61,500 votes, has therefore provided Adityanath with not just a political breather but bragging rights too.

“This victory is proof of the people’s trust in the state government,” Adityanath said after the result was announced. “I thank the BJP workers from the bottom of my heart for this historic win.”

Paswan, a grassroots party worker, polled 1.46 lakh votes against Prasad’s tally of about 84,500. Both candidates were Dalits, a community that makes up about 40 per cent of Milkipur’s electorate.

Adityanath had personally monitored the campaign for about two months and addressed six election rallies. He got about a dozen state ministers to camp in Milkipur intermittently since November.

Although the BJP had won six of the nine Assembly by-elections held in Uttar Pradesh in November, party leaders had their eyes on Milkipur because of its location in Ayodhya and its significance for Adityanath’s future political career.

Senior party leaders like deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had blamed the Ayodhya defeat last year — and the BJP’s overall poor Lok Sabha poll showing from Uttar Pradesh — on Adityanath’s alleged tendency to ignore party workers and give the upper hand to bureaucrats.

In 2014 and 2019, the BJP had won 71 and 62 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, respectively, but the tally fell to 33 in 2024.

“Had we lost Milkipur, Adityanath would have been in deep trouble. Now his
detractors within the BJP will need to find something new against him,” a senior BJP leader said, seeking anonymity.

Awadhesh alleged electoral malpractice. “The government misused its machinery and didn’t allow our voters to reach the polling booths,” he said.

“We have hundreds of video recordings showing the police intimidating voters and asking them for identity proof. We lodged complaints with the Election Commission but it didn’t act.”

Paswan credited the victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Adityanath.

“The margin of my victory means the people are angry with the SP and happy with the BJP government,” he said.