HC seeks EC reply on postponement of Milkipur bypoll

Lucknow: A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Thursday sought reply from the Election Commission on the postponement of the Milkipur assembly bypoll in Ayodhya. The court fixed Nov 12 for the next hearing.
A bench of Justice AR Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on a PIL moved by Milkipur resident Prabhunath Tiwari. The petitioner has demanded that Milkipur byelection be held along with the byelections on nine other UP assembly seats where voting is scheduled on Nov 13.
The bench directed the EC counsel to obtain instructions from the Commission in this regard and respond on the next hearing.
EC has not declared the date for the Milkipur bypoll owing to a pending election petition in the high court filed by former BJP MLA Baba Gorakhnath. Gorakhnath, a former MLA from Milkipur, had challenged the election of SP's Awadhesh Prasad from Milkipur seat in 2022 citing anomalies in his nomination papers.
Though Gorakhnath has now filed a plea in the high court to withdraw the election petition, it is yet to be taken up due to some lapses in the prescribed procedures which the court has asked the petitioner to get corrected.
Milkipur assembly seat fell vacant after the election of Awadhesh Prasad to Lok Sabha from the Faizabad (Ayodhya) seat the year.