AYODHYA, 8 FEB

BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan extended his lead over Samajwadi Party's (SP) Ajit Prasad to 31,093 votes after the 11th round of counting for the Milkipur assembly bypoll on Saturday, according to the Election Commission website.

While Paswan polled 58,327, Ajit Prasad, the son of SP's Faizabad MP Awadesh Prasad, got 27,234 votes.

Santosh Kumar of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) was a distant third with 1,864 votes.

The Milkipur bypoll was necessitated after Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat following his election to the Lok Sabha last year.

While the SP is looking to retain the seat, the BJP sees the election as an opportunity to avenge its loss in Faizabad in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, Milkipur was the only seat the BJP lost in Ayodhya district.

While the BSP is not contesting the bypoll, the Congress is backing its alliance partner SP.

Earlier in the day, Paswan offered prayers at a temple.

Speaking to PTI Videos, the BJP candidate thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He also expressed his gratitude to voters for supporting him.

"We took the welfare programmes and schemes run by the BJP government to the people of Milkipur and they extended support to us," Paswan said.

If elected, "we will not leave any stone unturned for the development of Milkipur", he said.

However, Awadhesh Prasad remained confident about his son's victory.

Election officials worked under pressure from the state government but despite all this, the SP candidate will win, he claimed.

"The BJP has been involved in large-scale irregularities. The Election Commission and observers were informed about them in writing but no action was taken," he said.