UP Urban Body Election: BJP Wins 813 Seats of Corporators, SP 191

The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh has won 813 out of the 1,420 seats in the corporators category in the state's urban local body polls, while the opposition Samajwadi Party bagged 191 and the Bahujan Samaj Party 85.

According to the State Election Commission (SEC), Samajwadi Party's Wasim (4,215 votes) defeated BJP's Rupesh (4,151 votes) for the post of Nagar Panchayat chairperson of Khetasarai in Jaunpur district.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate in the poll fray stood third. The BJP on Saturday registered win all the 17 mayoral seats in the state -- Varanasi, Lucknow, Ayodhya, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura-Vrindavan, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Meerut.

However, it was a mixed bag for the other local bodies, with independent candidates also registering wins. In all, there are 760 urban local bodies in 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh. According to the SEC, 191 Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates won as corporators in the state, followed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with 85, Congress 77, AIMIM 19, Rashtriya Lok Dal 10, Aam Aadmi Party eight, and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) five, while the Indian Union Muslim League, Jan Adhikar Party, Peace Party and the NISHAD party clinched one seat each.

In the category of chairperson of Nagar Palika Parishad, the BJP won 89 out of 199 posts and independent candidates won 41. The Samajwadi Party won 35 seats, BSP 16, RLD seven, Congress four and the AAP and the AIMIM won three seats each. BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) won one seat.

The electoral battle for members of Nagar Palika Parishad saw independent candidates bagging 3,130 out of 5,327 posts (58.76 per cent). The BJP stood a distant second with 1,360 seats, followed by the SP with 425, BSP 191, Congress 91, RLD 40, AIMIM 33 and AAP 30.

Of the 544 posts of chairperson of Nagar Panchayat, the BJP won 191 while independents bagged 195. The SP won 78 such posts, BSP 37 and the Congress 14. Independent candidates asserted themselves on the seats of Nagar Panchayat members as well, winning 4,824 of 7,177 seats.

The BJP bagged 1,403 seats, followed by the SP with 485, BSP 215, Congress 77 and the RLD 38. After the bulk of the results were announced on Saturday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thanked the people of Uttar Pradesh and congratulated BJP workers for forming a "triple-engine government" in the state.

Triple-engine is a term being used by BJP leaders to refer to the party ruling at the Centre, state and local levels. In the two-phase urban local body elections, voting was also held to elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of nagar palika parishads, 542 chairpersons of nagar panchayats and 7,104 members of nagar panchayats.

In all, 162 public representatives were elected unopposed, while there were as many as 83,378 candidates in the poll fray for 14,522 posts. In the urban local body elections, 53 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the second phase covering 38 districts on May 11, while the voter turnout in the first phase on May 4 was 52 per cent covering 37 districts of the state.

According to the State Election Commission, 4.32 crore people were eligible to cast their votes in the urban local body polls. In 2017, the polls were held in three phases and the overall polling percentage was 53 per cent.