6 hours Ago By Kapil Dixit
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a historic hat-trick victory in the Phulpur assembly by-election. Candidate Deepak Patel defeated his nearest rival, SP nominee Mohd Mujtaba Siddiqui, by a margin of 11,305 votes. PRAYAGRAJ: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has finally registered its hat-trick in the Phulpur assembly polls—once known as the stronghold and karambhoomi of Congress and then the Samajwadi Party — after winning the 2024 by-election.
BJP won the prestigious Phulpur assembly segment in the 2017 and 2022 state assembly polls. The fact was that party has won three assembly polls including one bypoll and two lok sabha polls from Phulpur since 2014. The bypoll on Phulpur assembly seat was necessitated after sitting MLA of BJP from Phulpur assembly seat, Praveen Patel was elected Member of Parliament from Phulpur parliamentary constituency in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
IPL 2025 mega auction IPL Auction 2025 Live: Bidding wars about to commence in Jeddah IPL Auction 2025: Who got whom IPL 2025 Auction: What is RTM card and how does Right to Match work? Praveen Patel had won the Phulpur assembly seat in 2017 and 2022 assembly elections. The district unit of BJP, ahead of the 2024 bypolls, drafted a planned strategy to reach out to all community voters to win their trust. For that, the party engaged all its morchas, including OBC, ST/SC, traders, minority, and women wings, and targeted community-based eligible voters.
While OBC morcha workers were asked to target OBC-dominated areas and pockets of Phulpur, including Yadav-dominated mohallahs, SC/ST morcha workers focused on slums and the Dalit belt to woo them. On Saturday, BJP candidate Deepak Patel was declared victorious after defeating his nearest rival and SP nominee Mohd Mujtaba Siddiqui by a margin of 11,305 votes. Patel got a total of 78,289 votes, while Siddiqui managed to get only 66,984 votes.
Besides, 10 other candidates, including BSP, lost their deposits in the by-election. BJP spokesman Rajesh Kesarwarni told TOI, "Party leadership worked on a planned strategy to reach out to all eligible voters as well as to take them to the concerned booths." For that, the party engaged a strong team of panna pramukh and booth committees to establish samvad with eligible voters.
The party also organised its booth and morcha sammelan to take up organised campaigning and managed to retain the prestigious seat for the third time in a row. Acknowledging the fact that BJP won the Phulpur assembly seat by thin margins in the 2017 and 2022 assembly polls, the district unit of party leadership was not willing to take any chances and focused on voter connect campaigns, particularly targeting women and youngsters. Apart from connecting with its core and traditional voters, party workers managed to break the stronghold of its arch-rival Samajwadi Party’s stronghold areas to the maximum extent.
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