Ex-BJP MLA to withdraw case from Allahabad HC against SP MP Awadhesh Prasad, clearing way for Milkipur bypolls in Ayodhya

Lucknow: BJP leader Baba Gorakhnath, who had filed a petition in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court challenging the election of Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Awadhesh Prasad from Milkipur assembly seat in Ayodhya, announced on Wednesday that he would withdraw his petition paving the way for a by-poll in Milkipur.

The bypolls to Milkipur was not included in the assembly constituencies going to the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh which was announced by the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday.

Awadhesh Prasad, who had been elected from Milkipur seat in the 2022 assembly polls in the state, resigned from there after being elected from Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in the recent LS polls necessitating the by-poll.

The EC, however, announced the schedule for by-poll on only nine assembly seats in UP leaving Milkipur owing to the pendency of the election petition by Baba Gorakhnath, the BJP nominee, who lost to the SP candidate.

Baba Gorakhnath's lawyer said that the petition would be withdrawn on Wednesday. ''The election petition has lost its relevance as Awadhesh Prasad has resigned from the seat and has become MP,'' the lawyer said.

It was not however clear if a bypoll would be conducted in Milkpur seat along with the nine other seats. 

Of the ten seats where by-polls would be held, five were held by the Samajwadi Party (SP), three by the BJP and one each by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Nishad Party, both alliance partners in the NDA.

Although the outcome of the assembly by-polls would have no effect on the BJP led government in the state, the saffron party, after its dismal performance in the state in the LS polls, plan to go all guns blazing in the by-poll to regain its sitting seats and also wrest a few from the SP.

By-poll would also be held on Mainpuri seat from where SP president Akhilesh Yadav had been elected in 2022 assembly polls. Akhilesh was elected from Kannauj LS seat in the LS poll.

In the LS polls, BJP had won 33 seats while its alliance partners RLD and Apna Dal won two and one seats respectively in UP. In the 2019 LS polls, BJP and its alliance partners had won 64 seats. The SP had won 37 seats while its alliance partner Congress had won six seats in the recent LS polls. BSP had drawn a blank.