The Bharatiya Janata Party has picked Chandrabhan Paswan as its candidate for the highly anticipated Milkipur byelection, in a move that has stumped party watchers.
Paswan is a party worker whose highest electoral office thus far has been a member of the zila panchayat from Rudauli. Currently, his wife is a member.
Paswan belongs to a Pasi family which has been involved in the business of selling and trading sarees, right up to Surat. He is a lawyer by education.
In picking Paswan, the party has recognized his constant presence in Milkipur. It has also demonstrated a willingness to give space to new faces by not choosing Baba Gorakhnath who had won the seat in 2017, but lost it in 2022.
It was on Gorakhnath’s petition on electoral malpractice that the Milkipur byelection was not announced with that of the other nine seats that saw polling in November 2024.
Gorakhnath’s candidature was also opposed by the other MLAs of the party.
There are some 3.58 lakh voters in Milkipur. Of this, Pasis constitute close to 60,000. By selecting a Dalit, the BJP also hopes to get the traditional Bahujan Samaj Party vote in its bank. It must be noted that the BSP is not fighting this election.
The contest has been made sharper by the fact that even the Samajwadi Party candidate comes from the same caste as Paswan.
The BJP will leave nothing to chance in Milkipur because it is not just any seat but symbolically a very important seat as it falls in the Faizabad constituency.
Six ministers, including Surya Pratap Shahi and Swatantra Dev Singh have been tasked with ensuring that the BJP wins the seat which fell vacant when the incumbent MLA Awadhesh Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha, beating the BJP candidate.
The BJP’s path on this seat has traditionally been difficult. Between 1977 and 2022, the party has won the seat only twice.
