UP Civic Poll results: Mayawati's BSP finishes second, unseats BJP from bastion

While the BJP swept the civic body polls, Mayawati's BSP managed to register a victory in just two mayoral seats out of 16.

Despite winning just two out of 16 mayoral seats in the Uttar Pradesh Civic Polls 2017, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was the only true competition to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BSP not just won two seats but also gave BJP a tough fight in many seats including Jhansi with a sleek margin. The highlight of the BSP's performance was, however, unseating the BJP from Aligarh.

BJP had never lost a mayoral election in Aligarh since 1995 after the system of direct voting was introduced but the BSP changed that on Friday. Mayawati's party, a true silent winner of the UP civic polls, unseated the BJP in Meerut and Aligarh.

The BSP gave the BJP the jitters in Jhansi with a very sleek margin winning 11 seats while the BJP finally managed to win 21. In Kanpur, the BSP won 3 while the BJP won 58, a massive lead. In Lucknow, the BJP won 53 seats while the BSP managed a mere 2. Ghaziabad saw the BSP win 13 seats while the BJP won 57. 53 is the number of seats that the BJP won in Agra while the BSP managed 27.

Firozabad saw a close fight between the BJP and the BSP with the latter winning 10 seats while the former won 19 out of 70 wards. The win for the BSP comes like a shot in the arm considering the drubbing the party received in the assembly elections. While the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress failed to open an account in the UP civic polls, the BSP emerged the only contender for the BJP whose victory was a given.

The BSP, whose traditional vote banks are the Dalits, seems to have managed to draw the support of the Muslims as well giving it an opportunity to threaten the BJP in many seats.

OneIndia News