BJP sweeps UP mayoral elections, wins in all 17 cities

Lucknow, May 13: The BJP was leading on mayor seats in all 17 municipal corporations in the urban local body polls votes of which are being counted today after a two-phase of polling, as per the early trends of counting of votes. On another seat of Agra, the BSP was leading, where BJP has now taken the lead.

 

 

 

BJP was leading on mayoral seats in—Bareilly, Meerut, Mathura-Vridnavan, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Shahjahanpur, Ayodhya, Ghaziabad, Firozabad, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Kanpur, and Lucknow.

On the seats of chairpersons in Nagar Palika Parishads, the trends show that the BJP candidates are leading on 73 seats and the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates have taken a lead on 28 seats. BSP candidates are in a leading position in 18 seats whereas Congress is leading on two seats. Others including independents are leading on 39 seats.

 

 

 

In Nagar Panchayat chairperson seats, the BJP is leading on 99 seats, SP on 54 seats, BSP on 29, and Congress on four. Others including independents are leading on 108 seats. Counting of votes is being done at 353 counter centers and over 35000 staff has been deployed in the counting process, according to the State Election Commission. The urban local body polls 2023 are holding more important for all the political parties as they are seeing it as a trial before the big match of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. While the opposition parties have left the responsibility of the campaign to ground workers, the ruling BJP did an aggressive campaign by roping in the entire state cabinet and top party functionaries. BJP had deployed over one lakh workers on the ground for campaign and poll management. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had addressed 50 public meetings during the entire campaign in two-phase elections. Adityanath campaigned in all 17 municipal corporations and addressed public meetings also in nagar paika parishad and Nagar Panchayats. He visited twice in Ayodhya and Varanasi. BJP kept the focus on both seats because construction of the Ram temple is going on in Ayodhya and Varanasi is Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. SP president Akhilesh Yadav campaigned in a few of the nagar nigams like Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, Meerut and Aligarh. He was travelling on other local bodies of Kannauj and Auraiyya. His wife and Mainpuri MP campaigned in Kanpur Nagar. His uncle and party general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav had taken responsibility of Etawah and Mainpuri districts. BSP national president Mayawati stayed away from campaign in the polls and preferred planning and monitoring from home. She had engaged the state unit to campaign across UP. Numerically, UP civic polls are important because total number of voters enrolled are 4.32 crore who around 29 per cent of total voters enrolled for the general elections of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. These 4.32 crore voters make a bulk of sample to assess the mood of 29 per cent voters of the state. Also, over 4 lakh of them are first time young voters who are expected to vote on the issue of jobs and law and order. Civic polls were held in two phases to elect representatives for 14,864 posts across 760 local bodies in the state. These local bodies including Nagar Nigams, nagar palikas and nagar panchayats which make over 60 per cent of the all 80 Lok Sabha constituencies and 300 of all 403 assembly constituencies in the state. Also, the Lok Sabha constituencies of several top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are in UP and their constituencies have municipal corporations. There are over a dozen union ministers from UP. Union Minister Smriti Irani too had reached Amethi to campaign for BJP candidates.

 

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“Since these elections are happening before Lok Sabha elections, public mood for the political parties will be assessed in the results of civic polls. It is like a practice match before Parliament elections. If BJP maintains the majority and improves its performance than 2017, that will benefit the BJP government in the state and Centre both. Because public often targets the Central government and the state government for the issues of local civic amenities like street lights, cleanliness, stray animals, encroachments, road and water logging,” said a BJP leader. That leader added that if performance declines, BJP will have to make a fresh booth level strategy for 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Further, voters of urban bodies are educated and believed to be opinion makers and hence their political support will have a message for the BJP and the opposition parties ahead of Lok Sabha polls.