New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS): The counting of votes for the bye-election of Milkipur Assembly seat of Ayodhya district began at 8 AM on Saturday, with several rounds of counting set to decide the winner.

The trends/results of the bypoll held on the Milkipur Assembly seat of Ayodhya district have started coming, the first trend has come in favour of the BJP.

The counting of votes is taking place at the Government Inter College of Milkipur. Counting will be done in several rounds and the results are expected by noon.

Although 10 candidates are in the fray for the Milkipur seat, the main contest is between BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan and Samajwadi Party candidate Ajit Prasad.

The contest has turned into a prestige battle between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both of whom have fielded candidates from the influential Pasi community.

The bypoll was necessitated after SP's Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat upon winning the Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha constituency in 2024. SP has now fielded his son, Ajit Prasad, while the BJP has put forward Chandrabhanu Paswan, making it a direct fight between two Pasi leaders.

The Milkipur constituency has approximately 3.60 lakh voters, including a significant 1.25 lakh Dalit electorate, with the Pasi community comprising around 65,000 voters. Other key voter groups include OBCs (30,000), Muslims (30,000), Brahmins (65,000), and Yadavs (55,000).

With both parties pulling out all stops to secure the crucial seat, all eyes are now on the counting process and the final results.