BJP won the Uttar Pradesh's Milkipur bypoll seat, while the result for Tamil Nadu's Erode East constituency is awaited. The counting of votes for the two bypolls began at 8 am with postal ballots, followed by EVM votes.
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 MP had won the seat in the 2022 assembly elections by defeating the then-incumbent BJP MLA Gorakhnath. The by-election in the Erode East seat was necessitated after the death of Congress MLA EVKS Elangovan on December 14 last year.
Milkipur Bypoll Result
With the Milkipur constituency being a part of the politically-significant Ayodhya district, the bypoll turned into a prestige battle between the Samajwadi Party and Uttar Pradesh's ruling BJP. Ten candidates are in the fray but the main contest is between the Samajwadi Party's Ajit Prasad and BJP nominee Chandrabhanu Paswan.
According to the Election Commission, BJP won the seat with a total of 1,46,397 votes. The Samajwadi Party candidate lost with a margin of 61,710 votes.
More than 65 per cent of the total 3.71 lakh voters in the Milkipur constituency voted on February 5, surpassing the turnout recorded in the 2022 assembly polls.
In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Milkipur was the only seat the BJP lost in Ayodhya district.
Erode East Bypoll Result
A total of 46 candidates, including 44 independents, are in the fray in the Erode East bypoll seat. However, the main contest is between the DMK's VC Chandirakumar and the Tamil nationalist party Naam Tamizhar Katchi's (NTK) M K Seethalakshmi.
Election Commission's latest trends show DMK leading with 90,064 votes. The NTK candidate is trailing with a margin of 70,973 votes.
Erode East recorded a voter turnout of 67.97 per cent on February 5, even though major political parties such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam AIADMK) and the BJP boycotted the assembly seat bypoll.
