SP fails to make inroads in urban pockets; BJP retains 'urban' tag

Lucknow, Nov 8 (UNI) Ruling Samajwadi Party, which spared nothing to woo urban voters, failed to make inroads into urban areas while vice-versa is the case with Bharatiya Janata Party, as the results of Uttar Pradesh civic bodies suggest.

SP, always considered a rural-based party, has lost badly to BJP and even Congress in the Mayoral polls where BJP has got 8 of 12 Nagar Nigam seats followed by Congress which could manage three seats. SP had to contend with the lone Moradabad Nagar Nigam seat.

BJP, which was till recently being written off as a political force in UP, had a turnaround case -- though it had traditionally been a urban party with high caste support. BJP managed to bag Lucknow, Agra, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Kanpur.

Congress, hardly considered a potent force in UP, also improved from its last time's performace with win at three mayoral seats at Allahabad, Jhansi and Bareilly.

SP had the lone seat in Moradabad, when party candidate Tufel Hussain defeated BJP candidate Beena Agarwal by a slender margin of 1,800 votes.

Of all the major political parties, BSP had chosen to stay away from civic poll in a way giving an advantage to BJP and Congress.

SP, however, has a solace in getting better of BJP and Congress in Nagar Panchayats and Nagar Palikas. Out of total of 417 Nagar Panchayat and 194 nagar Palikas, the SP has been ahead of political parties but rather 'high' number of Independents -- even bettring SP in Nagar panchayats -- is the phenonmenon to be seen by all political parties.

A BSP leader said that the high number of Independents could be attributed to the fact that most of these were supported by his party.

The civic polls, just ahead of the UP assembly polls, have given every reason to BJP and the Congress to announce their revival in the state. ''It is just the begining and the Congress will show its full might in the assembly polls,''declares Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pramod Tiwari.

Similar views were echoed by senior BJP leader Kalyan Singh , who said : ''The civic polls have shown BJP the way to reach the state assembly.'' SP General Secretary and senior party minister Shiv Pal Singh Yadav , however, does not see it as a 'set back' saying the vote percentage of the party had increased in the urban areas as well.''The elections are local in nature and, therefore, not a reflection on the coming assembly elections due early next year,'' he added.

He also denied speculations that the traditional Muslim vote bank has deserted the party in favour of Congress. ''Muslims voted for us, which helped SP gain an upper hand in Nagar Panchayats and nagar parishads.'' In the state capital, the civic elections were the high profile ones with former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and BJP national president Rajnath Singh campaigning for its mayoral candidate while Union Minister of State Akhilesh Das almost camping for a month to back Congress mayoral candidate.

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