BJP's bypoll defeat is due to the fact because backward caste Keshav Maurya not made CM, claims UP minister OP Rajbhar.

Terming disenchantment of OBCs as the reason for the BJP's defeat in by-elections, Uttar Pradesh minister Om Prakash Rajbhar said the backward classes were unhappy with the party as BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya was not made the chief minister.

"The BJP contested assembly polls with Keshav Prasad Maurya (a OBC) as its face but later Upper caste Yogi Adityanath was made chief minister.

Backwards supported the BJP in the hope that Maurya will become CM. The result of this anger reflected in the defeat of the BJP in bypolls", Rajbhar, who is cabinet minister and head of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, reported PTI.

Asked whether Yogi Adityanath is responsible for the defeat in bypolls, he said, "Government is responsible. The BJP should introspect about reasons of its defeat. It's up to the BJP whom to make CM. It's up to the party to make Yogi or Keshav as CM."

BJP not only lost badly both the Kairana and Noorpur assembly seats in the recent polls but also lost vote margin drastically that send shock waves to Bjp top leadership.

Tabassum Hasan of the Rashtriya Lok Dal won the Kairana seat by a margin of 44,618 votes, while Naeemul Hasan of the SP bagged the Noorpur Assembly seat by 5,662 votes.

The winning RLD candidate in Kairana was backed by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. In Noorpur, the main opposition parties supported the SP nominee.

Against this united opposition, the BJP's all-out effort to stop a chain of losses in bypolls in the state since 2014 proved futile even though Chief Minister Adityanath led from the front.

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