LUCKNOW: After sweeping seven out of nine seats in the recently held by-poll, BJP has intensified its efforts to wrest the high-stake Milkipur seat in Ayodhya where the bypoll is scheduled soon. The party has deputed two more key organisational functionaries — UP minister JPS Rathore and MLC Dharmendra Singh — who led the party win in Kundarki (Moradabad) and Katehari (Ambedkarnagar) assembly bypolls, respectively where the lotus bloomed after three decades. Both Rathore and Dharmendra Singh are mandated to work alongside state ministers Surya Pratap Shahi, Mayankeshwar Singh, Girish Jatav, and Satish Sharma. Rathore, a known strategist in the party, is an MLC and UP cooperative minister in Yogi cabinet. He joined the state government after the BJP returned to office in 2022. He was tasked with ramping up BJP poll preparation in the Kundarki seat which has over 50 per cent of Muslim voters. Kundarki also faced a bypoll following the election of SP MLA Zia-Ur-Rehman Barq to Lok Sabha from Sambhal. BJP’s victory in Kundarki consolidated Rathore’s position in the party. On the other, Dharmendra Singh being entrusted with Milkipur bypoll is equally significant. Singh has been a key organisational leader in the Gorakhpur region, the turf of Yogi Adityanath. Just over a year ago, Singh was anointed party’s state vice-president while being nominated for the legislative council. Singh, an OBC, was deployed in Katehari, which has a sizable population of OBC and Dalits.As per the political experts, the BJP wants to capitalise on its victory in the bypolls. Milkipur, the reserved seat had fallen vacant following the election of SP nine-time MLA Awadhesh Prasad who had emerged as the master killer by defeating BJP’s sitting MP Lallu Singh in Faizabad (Ayodhya) seat in recent Lok Sabha elections. However, the EC had postponed the bypoll since an election petition concerning Milkipur in Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court. The HC dismissed the pending petition last week, thereby clearing the decks for bypoll in Milkipur. Milkipur may well turn out to be another battle of prestige between the BJP and the SP since the BSP has opted out and Congress has decided to back SP. A per the party sources, ground-level preparation have already intensified in Ayodhya while revamping its organisational structure at the booth and mandal level. The Milkipur assembly seat has 414 booths and five divisions, which are scheduled to have a new set of functionaries. Analysts said that the BJP is expected to play on its tried and tested Hindutva pitch with a focus on Yogi’s “Batenge toh katenge” call to counter SP’s caste narrative of Pichhda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (PDA).
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