By-election to Ayodhya's Milkipur on Feb 5

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced February 5 as the date for the much-anticipated by-election to Ayodhya's Milkipur Assembly seat. 

The seat had fallen vacant after the resignation of Samajwadi Party (SP) Awadhesh Prasad who got elected as Member of Parliament (MP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, creating a lot of heartburn in the BJP circles. His son Ajit Prasad has been nominated from the seat by the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.

The date for the Milkipur by-election were announced along with Delhi election dates.

The poll panel on Tuesday declared February 5 as the date of voting for the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly. The date of the issue of Gazette Notification is January 10, the last date for making nominations is January 17, the date for scrutiny of nominations is January 18, and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is January 20. The results will be declared on February 8.

With Milkipur constituency going to polls in a month from now, it will see a fresh round of intensified and heated poll battle between the ruling BJP and rival SP.

Just months ago, the nine constituencies of Uttar Pradesh which went to bypolls hogged the national headlines owing to the repeated war of words between the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav.

The BJP-SP fracas in the run-up to the by-elections to nine seats in the state stemmed from Akhilesh's party staging a strong comeback in the 2024 LS polls and the loss of the Ayodhya seat for the BJP.

The BJP's big loss was attributed to its infighting while SP saw an exponential rise in its political stature, bagging one of its largest number of LS seats.

Under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's stewardship, the BJP managed to settle scores in the subsequent by-elections by bagging seven out of nine seats while the SP managed to hold ground on just two seats, barely managing to secure its strongholds – Karhal and Sisamau.

With the Milkipur Assembly seat in Ayodhya heading to polls, the political rivalry is set to get vigorous again with both parties taking jabs at each other. It will be interesting to see who gets overshadowed and outmanoeuvred by whom.