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As the fifth round in the counting of votes for the by-election in Uttar Pradesh's Milkipur Assembly constituency completes, BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan is leading by 14,339 votes to his nearest rival Ajit Prasad of Samajwadi Party, according to the Election Commission website. There are 25 rounds left in the vote counting in the constituency.
The by-election in Milkipur was necessitated after Samajwadi Party MP Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat after winning the Lok Sabha election from Faizabad (Ayodhya) held last year. The constituency recorded a voter turnout of 57.13 per cent in the election held on February 5. Tight security has been put in place in the constituency on the counting day. "The security is complete and the paramilitary forces were deployed 24/7," Ayodhya DM Chandra Vijay Singh told ANI. The by-election in the Scheduled Castes (SC)-reserved constituency holds importance for both parties. In the 2022 Assembly elections, SP's Awadhesh Prasad defeated BJP's incumbent MLA, Gorakhnath, in Milkipur. Awadhesh Prasad had defeated BJP's sitting MP Lallu Singh by securing a victory margin of 54,567 votes. It was a major setback for the BJP as it happened just months after the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. On Thursday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the BJP called their party workers from all adjacent districts for fake voting in the Milkipur by-elections. "About the Milkipur by-election, I invited all to see how the democracy is going in a BJP-ruled state. BJP has called their party workers from all the adjacent districts like Ambedkar Nagar, Sultanpur and Amethi for fake voting. It's in the public domain how presiding officers were receiving inputs about their targets. It was a well-planned election," he said. "This is the manner in which BJP contests elections. The Election Commission is dead. We will have to gift them white cloth," he added. On Wednesday, Yadav claimed that the police were checking the ID cards of the voters. In a post on X, Yadav demanded action from the Election Commission to remove people involved in this. However, Ayodhya Police responded to Samajwadi Party Chief's allegation and said that the ID cards of booth agents were being checked, not of voters. It also asked the former CM to "not make false statements". (ANI)
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