Uttar Pradesh: local bodies, panchayat elections
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Mayoral polls
2023
Rajiv Srivastava, Pankaj Shah & Arvind Chauhan, May 14, 2023: The Times of India
LUCKNOW: BJP rode UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s campaign blitzkrieg to sweep the state’s all 17 mayoral seats in urban civic polls, bettering its tally of 14 of the 16 posts in 2017.
“This is BJP’s historic victory because of its committed workers and party functionaries,” said Yogi, who addressed 50 rallies in 12 days ahead of the polls.
A split in Muslim votes — among SP, BSP and AIMIM — played a pivotal role in BJP’s victory in several segments, especially in western UP.
BJP also significantly improved its tally in 199 nagar palika parishad (NPP) seats and 544 nagar panchayat (NP) seats. The vote count hasn’t ended and, according to the latest reports, BJP was poised to win more than 95 NPP seats, while SP led in 30 seats and BSP in 22. In elections to nagar panchayat chairman seats, BJP won/led in 203, SP took 83 seats, BSP registered a win/lead in 40.
It raised its tally of corporators and councillors in municipal corporations and nagar palikas. In Lucknow, it was poised to win nearly 80 of the 110 corporator seats.
BJP’s vote share saw a sharp rise in all the 17 seats. Its candidates bagged more than 45% votes on 13 seats, while four of them got the support of more than 50% voters.
In 2017, BSP had won Aligarh and Meerut mayoral seats. This time, its candidates were ahead in Saharanpur and Agra for quite some time, but eventually lost to BJP candidates. Like last time, both SP and Congress failed to open their accounts.
The BJP winners for mayoral posts are Sushma Kharakwal in Lucknow, Girishpati Tripathi in Ayodhya, Ashok Tiwari in Varanasi, Sunita Dayal in Ghaziabad, Umesh Gautam in Bareilly, Archana Verma in Shahjahanpur, Prashant Singha in Aligarh, Pramila Pandey in Kanpur, Harikant Ahluwalia in Meerut, Bihari Lal Arya in Jhansi, Ganesh Kesarwani in Prayagraj, Mangalesh Srivastav in Gorakhpur, Hemlata Kushwaha in Agra, Vinod Kumar Agarwal in Mathura, Vinod Agarwal in Moradabad, Dr Ajay Kumar in Saharanpur and Kamini Rathore in Firozabad.
Sunita Dayal was the biggest winner, defeating her nearest rival, Nisara Khan of BSP, by over 2.87 lakh votes, or nearly 59% of votes polled.
In Meerut, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM candidate Mohammad Anas took an early lead, surprising many, although BJP’s Harikant Ahluwalia, a former mayor, finally took the race.
BJP’s organisational machinery moved as a cohesive unit and Saturday’s landslide gave the party the impetus to segue into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections mode.
Following Yogi’s footsteps, deputy CMs Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak addressed 58 and 54 rallies, respectively. Yogi and a host of senior party members, including the two deputy CMs and BJP national vice-president Radha Mohan Singh, celebrated the victory at the state party office with sweets.
May 14, 2023: The Times of India
BJP raised its tally of corporators and councillors in municipal corporations and nagar palikas. In Lucknow, it was poised to win nearly 80 of the 110 corporator seats.
BJP’s vote share saw a sharp rise in all the 17 seats. Its candidates bagged over45% votes on 13 seats, while four of them got the support of more than 50% voters.
In2017, BSP had won Aligarh and Meerut mayoral seats. This time, its candidates were ahead in Saharanpur and Agra for quite some time, but eventually lost to BJP candidates. Like last time, both SP and Congress failed to open their accounts. The BJP winners for mayoral posts are Sushma Kharakwal in Lucknow, Girishpati Tripathi in Ayodhya, Ashok Tiwari in Varanasi, Sunita Dayal in Ghaziabad, Umesh Gautam in Bareilly, Archana Verma in Shahjahanpur, Prashant Singha in Aligarh, Pramila Pandey in Kanpur, Harikant Ahluwalia in Meerut, Bihari Lal Arya in Jhansi, GaneshKesarwani in Prayagraj, Mangalesh Srivastav in Gorakhpur, Hemlata Kushwaha in Agra, Vinod Kumar Agarwal in Mathura, Vinod Agarwal in Moradabad, Dr Ajay Kumar in Saharanpur and Kamini Rathore in Firozabad.
Sunita Dayal was the biggest winner, defeating her nearest rival, Nisara Khan of BSP, by over 2. 87 lakh votes, or nearly 59% of votes polled. In Meerut, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM candidate Mohammad Anas took an early lead, surprising many, although BJP’s Harikant Ahluwalia, a former mayor, finally took the race.
BJP’s organisational machinery moved as a cohesive unit and Saturday’s landslide gave the party the impetus to segue into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections mode.
Following Yogi’s footsteps, deputy CMs Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak addressed 58 and 54 rallies, respectively. Yogi and a host of senior party members, including the two deputy CMs and BJP national vice-president Radha Mohan Singh, celebrated the victory at the state party office with sweets.
2016: Panchayat elections
The Times of India Jan 08 2016
Subhash Mishra
Lucknow
The ruling Samajwadi Party swept the UP district panchayat chairmen's poll with a tally of 60 seats out of possible 74 after Thursday's voting. The party , which had won 36 out of 38 seats, which had been decided without contest, won 24 more after the voting, striking a blow to BJP, which lost in PM Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi and state chief Laxmi Kant Bajpeyi's constituency Meerut.
While the only solace for BJP was its victory in five seats in western UP out of its total tally of seven, SP's clean sweep had some blemishes as well as the party-supported candidates lost some seats like Bijnor and Sitapur to rebels.
In Bijnor, suspended SP MLA Ruchi Veera, ensured the victory of her husband against the official candidate.She had been suspended after she refused to withdraw her husband's candidature and for supporting him against the officially nominated candidate.Senior minister Shivpal Yadav, however, shrugged off these minor glitches, claiming that the result was an indicator to the likely trends in the state polls to be held a year later.
2017
From: Subhash Mishra, Saffron sweep in UP civic polls, Cong loses Amethi, December 3, 2017: The Times of India
See graphic:
The results of the elections to local bodies in UP, 2012 and 2017
Seats won and votes polled by the parties
From: Shankar Raghuraman. In polls for heads of tier-2 UP towns, BJP got 29% of votes, December 4, 2017: The Times of India
See graphic:
Seats won and votes polled by the parties in mayoral and nagarpalika polls in December 2017
The headlines on the day of the civic poll results in Uttar Pradesh may have suggested a sweep for the ruling BJP, but that’s just the elections for mayors in the state’s biggest cities, where it won 14 of the 16 up for grabs. An analysis of the polls for theheadsof the next tier of cities — the nagar palika parishad presidents — shows that it notonly won just 35% of theseats, it got a mere 28.6% of the votes. Considering it had polled over 42% in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and close to that figure in the 2017 assembly polls, this is not great news for BJP. But its main rivalsin thestatehave little reason to cheer, having performed even worse.
BJP’s vote share in the mayoral contests for the municipal corporations was 41.4%, while the three other major parties — SP, BSP and Congress — were left far behind in the15to18% range (see graphic). In the nagar palika parishad presidents’ polls, however, the saffron party could win only roughly one in three seats or 70 of the 198 in the contest, with independents making major inroads. Its vote share of 28.6% was still comfortably ahead of SP’s 21.7% but the gap was nothing like in the mayoral contests.
A regional analysis of the nagar palika parishad presidents’ contests throws up more pointers to the challenges for BJP in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In two regions that between themselves accounted for 90 of the 98 seats — Central UP and Rohilkhand — SP actually won more seats than BJP and in Central UP even had a higher vote share. Both in 2014 and in the assembly polls, the saffron party had led comfortably in each region of thestate.
The party’s vote share is uniformly lower in every single region ofUP, but the pick-up in the vote share of its rivals is patchy, SP putting up a strong fight in two regions but having sub-20% votesharesin western UP, the northeastern districts and Bundelkhand. BSP seems to have held its own in the southeastern districts and in the west, but yielded the main opposition space to SP in the rest. The Congress’ showing in these lower tiers belies any hopes of revival it might have gotfrom the mayoral polls.
Also worrying for BJP would be the fact that its share of seats– and, wecan besure, of votes– goesdown as thelevelof the contest dips from the biggestcitiestothesmaller onesto the bottom of the urban ladder, the nagar panchayats. In the nagar panchayats, BJPwon only 100 of the 438 presidents’ posts, independents picking up
182. While we have not calculated vote shares for this tier, it is certain that the party’s share wouldbeeven lower than in the nagar palika parishad presidential polls. BJP’s share of seatsin the members of thetwo lower tiers, nagar palika parishad and nagar panchayats, is even less than in the heads of these bodies. Only one in eight elected nagar panchayats members and about one in six nagar palika parishad members isfrom the party.
In the nagar palika parishad presidents’ polls, BJP could win only roughly one in three seats or 70 of the 198 in the contest, with independents making major inroads
Civic bodies: AIMIM marks presence in UP
Winning at least 26 wards in various civic bodies, Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has opened its account in Uttar Pradesh. In Ghaziabad district, the party candidate has been elected chairman of Dasna Nagar Panchayat.
According to the partywise data compiled by the State Election Commission (SEC), AIMIM bagged 12 municipal councillors’ posts, seven nagar palika parishad members’ posts and six nagar panchayat posts.
The party’s mayoral candidate from Firozabad, Mashroor Fatima, was a runner-up. The winning candidate, Nutan Rathore from BJP, got 98,932 votes which equals to 34.99% vote share while Fatima got 56,536 votes, equalling 19.99% vote share. The total voting percentage of Firozabad stood at 56.16%. State president for AIMIM, Shaukat Ali, said the party’s win was a reply to all those who had termed AIMIM as an agent of BJP.
Mayoral seats: BJP won 14/ 16; BSP 2
Support for BJP in urban areas, which helped the party score a landslide win in the UP state polls earlier this year, appears to have
survived the grouses arising over the implementation of GST, with the party sweeping 14 out of 16 mayoral seats in the state on Friday.
BSP showed signs of a comeback by snatching two seats from BJP, while SP and Congress failed to open their account. Congress lost badly in Amethi, Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha seat.BJP won three newly created corporations — Ayodhya-Faizabad, Mathura-Vrindavan and Saharanpur — and also in Muslim-dominated cities: Moradabad, Bareilly and Firozabad.
BSP show queers pitch for Cong, SP
BJP also won in Agra, frequently referred to as the “Dalit capital” because of the big concentration of Dalits it boasts of.
The resounding victory at the expense of Congress and other rivals comes on the eve of Gujarat polls and should act as a morale-booster for BJP.PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah hailed the ‘thumbs-up’ from the UP electorate, the third consecutive one since its massive victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The reaffirmation in the urban centres, almost all of them with sizeable presence of traders, should also reassure the party which is having to deal with Congress’s attempt to stoke the grouses against GST.
It marks a personal triumph for chief minister Aditya Nath Yogi, who led the party’s campaign by addressing 34 rallies within 15 days.
His rise perhaps brings to an end BJP’s long search post-Kalyan Singh for a leader with an appeal covering the sprawling state, who can hold his own against powerful satraps like Mayawati.
The results suggest a revival of sorts for BSP, especially in western UP where electoral collaboration between Dalits — core constituents — and Muslims prevailed against BJP in Aligarh and Meerut and can politically resuscitate party supremo Mayawati who appeared to be facing an existential crisis.
But by underlining its potential as a possible BJP-beater, BSP has created complications also for SP and Congress, especially considering the trend among Muslims to switch their support to whoever is in the best position to defeat the Hindutva outfit.
While for Congress, the rout only adds to the string of humiliations, SP is under spotlight for failing to open its account . SP has been defeated in its strongholds by BJP, say analysts. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is already facing criticism for not campaigning and for what is seen as a “casual” approach to politics. In contrast, BJP contested the polls by deploying its well-oiled campaign machinery and even roping in Union ministers.
BJP retains Gorakhpur, but loses CM’s ward
Shailvee Sharda, December 3, 2017: The Times of India
BJP registered its third consecutive victory in the Gorakhpur mayoral election but lost in the ward where UP chief minister Aditya Nath Yogi is a voter. Gorakhnath temple is also situated in ward number 68 — Purana Gorakhpur.
Independent candidate Nadira Khatoon defeated the BJP candidate and displaced the party which had won the seat twice. While Nadira polled 1,782 votes, BJP’s Maya Tripathi got 462 votes. Crediting Yogi for her victory, Nadira said: “Baba (Yogi) is behind my success. He is my neighbour and he made me win.” BJP’s mayoral candidate Sita Ram Jaiswal defeated his nearest rival, Rahul Gupta of SP, by a margin of 75,823 votes.
BSP won in Aligarh, Meerut
HIGHLIGHTS
BSP registered twin success in Meerut and Aligarh, wresting both seats from the BJP
The meat lobby, party insiders said, mobilised the Muslim community to vote en masse for BSP candidates to ensure BJP defeat
Mayawati not only retained her core Dalit vote bank but also managed to get back those who had shifted their loyalties to the BJP
The BSP's gamble of contesting the UP civic polls on party symbol for the first time in 22 years appears to have paid off with the party performing unexpectedly well in urban areas by winning two mayoral posts. Urban areas in UP are not the traditional stronghold of the Mayawati-led party.
"The party is upbeat with the results that have come as a shot in the arm for cadres who have been struggling since the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly polls," a senior party leader said.
"This was the logic behind the party deciding to go into the urban body elections on party symbol as the leadership felt that there is a need to work with renewed vigour and missionary zeal through a new strategy to deal with fresh challenges after electoral contests in which the party did not fare well," he said.
Though the BJP is a clear winner, bagging 14 of the 16 mayoral posts, the BSP registered twin success in Meerut and Aligarh, wresting both seats from the BJP. Besides, the BSP candidates also performed well in Jhansi, Agra and Saharanpur losing the last seat by a margin of just 2,000 votes, he said.
Both the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, however, failed to open their account in the elections for the mayoral posts. Unlike the BJP, which had put in all its resources and leaders spearheaded by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth, the BSP had reposed its faith on its state-level leaders, including state unit president Ram Achal Rajbhar, among others for campaigning.
Behind the BJP's massive win was the strong army of the saffron party and R-S-S cadres, over 300 UP MLAs and ministers working full time to reach out to voters. Adityanath himself criss-crossed the state to campaign for civic elections, something unusual for a chief minister to do.
Apparently, this was also the first time when the ruling party released a full-fledged manifesto for a local body election and the head of the government himself campaigned on a war footing for civic bodies which have traditionally remained the strong hunting ground for the BJP, he stressed.
The BSP, in contrast, made little noise with its national president not only staying away from campaigning, but also busy in other states. Despite not being a party in active campaign, she had been busy in formulating a strategy and overseeing the campaigning, he said. Party insiders feel that what worked in favour of the party was the Dalit-Muslim combination.
The party supremo will further consolidate it along with the backwards for the next electoral contest in 2019 for Lok Sabha, though the party is likely to keep its options of striking a respectful alliance open.
"These elections also prove that the BSP is still among the foremost choices of the electorate despite the propaganda of the saffron party projecting itself as the only party which could take the state and country ahead," he said.
After successive poll debacles, Mayawati had decided that though BSP's base is not as strong in urban areas (as in rural areas), a decision has been taken in view of the growth in people's support in urban areas as well.
The BSP has not fought the urban body polls on party ticket since 1995.
This time, on demands from its leaders, a decision was taken to contest on party symbol.
Apart from this, the ban on illegal slaughterhouses by the BJP government might have caused the saffron party's defeat in Meerut and Aligarh mayoral elections.
The meat lobby, party insiders said, mobilised the Muslim community to vote en masse for BSP candidates to ensure BJP defeat. Despite BSP chief Mayawati not campaigning and not even casting her vote, dalits in general and Jatavs in particular stood with the BSP and this made the choice easy for Muslims.
At the same time, this tactical move has become a worrying sign for the Samajwadi Party as the minority community has remained loyal to it for long but this time voted for the BSP in Meerut, Aligarh and Saharanpur where BSP candidate was the runner-up.
Political observers said the meat trader lobby has a strong influence in Meerut.
A BJP insider said leaders like Yaqoub Qureshi, whose family is in slaughterhouse business, gets his support mainly from Muslims who are involved in the trade. Muslims have been crying foul since the Adityanath government banned illegal slaughterhouses with some even claiming to have lost their livelihood.
There are approximately 1.10 lakh members from the Qureshi and the Ansari communities in Meerut.
In Sunita Verma they found a strong candidate as the BSP with Dalit support became an easy pick for the minority community. Even in Aligarh, which has eight slaughterhouses, the community voted for BSP's Mohd Furqan to defeat BJP's Rajeev Agrawal.
Qureshis and Ansaris, who are mostly in slaughterhouse trade, have a population of around 40,000 and in total, Aligarh has around 1.25 lakh Muslims.
There were other reasons too in Aligarh.
Party insiders said giving ticket to Rajeev Agrawal forced Varshneys to switch loyalty since, traditionally and politically, both communities have been against each other.
Varshneys have remained loyal to the BJP for years and even when former chief minister Kalyan Singh lost from Atrauli, Krishna Kumar Noman, a Varshney, won Aligarh because of them.
Party insiders said that losing Aligarh is a bigger shock and worrying sign for the BJP than losing Meerut.
After a dismal performance in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and then in UP assembly elections, the Mayawati-led BSP sprung a surprise by winning two out of the 16 mayoral seats. BSP candidates Sunita Verma and Mohammad Furkan won from Meerut and Aligarh respectively.
Almost half of BJP candidates lost deposits
From: Pankaj Shah & Shankar Raghuraman, Almost half of BJP candidates in UP civic polls lost their deposits, December 6, 2017: The Times of India
Contrary to the perception of a landslide win for BJP in the UP civic elections, the number of seats in which the party lost its deposit (3,656) was significantly higher than the number of seats it won (2,366). That means about 45% of all the candidates it put up in the elections failed to secure their deposit. The numbers were even worse in the case of the other major parties.
An analysis of the data from the three-tiered urban bodies poll also shows that BJP’s vote share across all the posts up for grabs in the polls was 30.8%, with its share in the contests for members of nagar panchayats — the lowest of the three tiers — a mere 11.1%.
BJP had put up more candidates than any other party in these polls by contesting 8,038 of the 12,644 seats for which results were announced. It ended up with almost half of them losing their deposits. Indeed, at the nagar panchayat member level, while 664 of its candidates won, more than twice as many, 1,462 to be precise, lost their deposits (see graphic).
The proportion of candidates who lost deposits was even higher for SP, BSP and Congress at 54%, 66% and 75% respectively. But then nobody has suggested that any of these parties has scored a famous victory.
One reason for the surprisingly low vote share of the BJP in the polls for nagar palika parishad members and nagar panchayat members is certainly that the party contested only about twothirds of the seats in the nagar palika parishads and a little over half in nagar panchayats. Even so, the 16% and 11% shares achieved would worry the party.
Comparisons with the 2012 elections for these urban bodies are rendered meaningless by the fact that neither SP nor BSP contested the polls. The polls were thus reduced to contests between BJP, Congress, minor parties and independents supported by the major ones. But in the 2006 polls, for instance, he SP had contest less than 40% of nagar panchayat members seats and garnered 13% of the vote.
Incidentally, even in the mayoral contests in 16 big cities, the 41% vote share garnered by the BJP represents a significant come down from the levels of about 48.5% recorded in these Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014. But given the fact that smaller parties and independents become more relevant in a local election than in parliamentary polls that would be not much of a worry for the BJP. The much reduced vote shares in the smaller towns and cities would be.
Municipal Corpn, Ghaziabad: BJP won 58/ 100 wards
Fresh from a thumping victory in the assembly election, BJP won the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation polls by taking 58 of the 100 wards in the municipal corporation on Friday. The mayoral post in Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam was also bagged by BJP’s Asha Sharma, who garnered 49.86% of the total votes polled.
Asha (58), a two-time councillor, defeated her nearest rival, Dolly Sharma of Congress, by a margin of 1.63 lakh votes. Congress came second, bagging 14 seats in the corporation. Mayawati’s BSP, which contested the urban local body polls in UP for the first time on its symbol, won 13 councillor wards while its regional rival, Samajwadi Party, managed to get just five seats. AAP, which contested the urban local body polls in the state for the first time, failed to open its account in Ghaziabad.
The mayoral post in Ghaziabad, which was reserved for women in 2017, went to the BJP for the fifth time in a row. Ghaziabad BJP leader Ashu Verma was the mayor during the previous term, having won the post in a byelection held in February 2016, following the demise of Teluram Kamboj who also belonged to the same party. The results showed up a big urban-rural divide in the way votes were cast. While BJP dominated the urban wards, it failed to win the chairperson’s post in any of the four nagar panchayats in Ghaziabad.
Nagar panchayats: 71% of elected members are Independents
The BJP may have won 14 of 16 mayoral seats in Uttar Pradesh, but in the nagar palika and nagar panchayat polls, the second and third tiers of local governance, it was Independents’ show all the way, leaving the saffron party with a smaller percentage of seats.
In these two bodies, the BJP has managed just 17% and 12% of seats respectively. The Independents, meanwhile, have continued their stellar performance — in 2012, too, they had performed well — bagging 64% and 71% seats. According to data provided by UP state election commission on its website, 71.31% of the newly elected nagar panchayat members are independent candidates; for BJP it is 12.22%.
In sheer numbers, there are 3,875 Independent nagar panchayat members in UP, of which BJP has 664. Similarly, 64.25% of nagar palika members are independent candidates, translating into 3,380 members. The saffron party has secured 17.53% of the seats, with 922 members elected.
While EVMs were used in the municipal corporation polls for mayors, the nagar panchayat and palika polls used ballot papers, triggering a fresh row in Uttar Pradesh, with both Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati of the BSP crying foul.
The two former chief ministers of the state on Saturday raised doubts over the election results. While Mayawati said “the BJP will lose the 2019 Lok Sabha polls if ballot papers are used”, Akhilesh tweeted: “BJP has only won 15% seats in ballot paper areas and 46% in EVM areas.”
2019
Block pramukh polls: BJP sweeps/ July
Pankah Shah, July 11, 2021: The Times of India
After sweeping the Zila Panchayat chairman elections, BJP-supported candidates had registered victories in more than 630 out of 825 block pramukh seats till the filing of this report on Saturday. The development potentially arms the saffron party with proof to claim a large-scale political presence in the rural swathes ahead of the high-stakes UP assembly elections next year.
Violence was reported from several districts where elections for block pramukh were held and included the use of guns in Etawah and Hathras. Besides these two districts, clashes took place in Hamirpur, Sonabhadra, Amroha, Chandauli, Pratapgarh, Barabanki and Unnao. In other districts, including Ayodhya, Rae Bareli, Siddharthnagar, Mahoba and Muzaffarnagar, there were protests and sloganeering and Independents alleged that they were stopped from voting in police presence.
Immediately after the results were announced, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath told reporters that it was a mandate for BJP’s policy of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas”. According to reports, BJPsupported candidates contested 735 seats, while14 seats were given to its ally, Apna Dal (S).
The party also provided unannounced support to 76 candidates while agreeing not to field officially supported candidates.
2021
Panchayat elections
Broad results
As on 5 May
PankajShah , May 5, 2021: The Times of India
The Samajwadi Party is surging ahead in the UP panchayat polls, considered the bellwether of the high-stakes assembly polls next year, with counting trends indicating that SPsupported candidates are frontrunners in 747 zila panchayat wards, while BJPbacked nominees are leading in, or have won, 666 seats.
This has led to BJP scrambling to open back-channel negotiations with Independents who have won or are leading in 3,050 zila panchayat wards to seize control over the top tier of rural local bodies. Top sources in BJP said, the party is trying to reach out to 1,238 Independent candidates to wrest maximum posts of zila panchayat chairpersons, which would be held through indirect election.
BSP and Congress supported candidates were leading in 322 and 77 wards, respectively.
As on 6 May
See graphic, above 'UP Panchayat Election results as on an India Today video on 6 May 2021'
The BJP in Ayodhya, Mathura
BJP manages only 8 of 40 seats in Ayodhya, 8 of 33 in Mathura
BJP faced embarrassment in the Hindutva nervecentres of Ayodhya and Mathura, where opposition-backed candidates surged ahead in the panchayat poll tally as counting picked up pace on Tuesday. Ayodhya delivered the biggest jolt to BJP, where it could muster wins in only eight of 40 zila panchayat wards, with SP bagging 24 seats, BSP four, and Independents six. In Mathura, BJP won eight of 33 zila panchayat seats, while BSP emerged the biggest gainer with 13. In Varanasi, both BJP and SP claimed to have won 16 seats each of the 40 zila panchayat wards, but local sources placed the BJP tally lower.
BJP wins 20 seats on Yogi turf, SP 18
May 5, 2021: The Times of India
Even as BJP faced significant losses in religious nerve centres of Varanasi, Ayodhya and Mathura in the recent UP panchayat polls, its saving grace was Gorakhpur, the home turf of UP CM Yogi Adityanath, where it was ahead of other parties, albeit by a whisker.
BJP won 20 zila panchayat seats, which was the highest among all major political parties. SP won 18 while BSP bagged four seats, reports Pankaj Shah. “It is because of the aashirwad (blessings) of Maharajji (CM Yogi) the opposition could not breach Gorakhpur the way it intended to,” BJP’s Gorakhpur region secretary Janardan Tewari said.
In Prayagraj, SP victorious in 23 seats, BJP restricted to 13
Tewari said BJP had been aiming for at least 35 out of the 68 seats. The district was the epicenter of political contest between BJP and the opposition after Yogi Adityanath vacated the Gorakhpur parliamentary seat to take the reins of UP as its CM. In 2018 by elections, arch rivals SP and BSP cobbled up an alliance to defeat the BJP in Yogi’s bastion. The opposition’s joint candidate, Praveen Nishad, later switched over to BJP and, in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, won from Sant Kabir Nagar. The Gorakhpur seat was won by Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Ravi Kishan on BJP ticket in 2019.
The situation was not good for BJP in Prayagraj where SP won on 23 seats, while BJP was restricted to 13 seats. This district was another political hotbed for BJP after its MP Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Phulpur seat (which came under then Allahabad district) in 2017 to take charge as UP’s deputy CM. In the ensuing by elections in 2018, SP’s Nagendra Patel defeated BJP’s Kaushalendra Patel by around 60,000 votes. The seat was wrested back by BJP’s Keshari Patel in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The trends, nevertheless, showed that SP managed to save its pocket boroughs of Etawah, Mainpuri and Kannauj which were keenly eyed by the BJP.
AAP wins 83 seats
May 5, 2021: The Times of India
Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Wednesday said that the party has received “humongous support” from the people of Uttar Pradesh in the panchayat polls and won 83 zila panchayat seats, around 300 village pradhan seats, 232 block development committee seats. He said around 40 lakh voters have voted for AAP.
In a press conference, Singh said people of UP have accepted the Kejriwal model of governance — quality education, healthcare, free water and free electricity — and voted for the party.
“The result is a clear indicator that there is a feeling of utter disappointment among people for the Yogi government and they completely rejected BJP in the panchayat elections,” said Singh, adding that the results are also a reflection of poor Covid management by the UP government.
“The outcome of the panchayat elections has also proved that during the pandemic, the UP government did not arrange for oxygen beds, did not make arrangements for testing and even to cremate bodies,” Singh said. He claimed that people have clarified that they don’t want politics of hate, they need hospitals, schools and free electricity in UP.
AAP has expressed gratitude towards the people of UP. Singh announced that soon AAP will start auto-ambulance services in Lucknow and other districts to help people during the pandemic. TNN
Zila Parishad chairmen: BJP’s big win over Samajwadi Party
Pankaj Shah, July 3, 2021: The Times of India
From: July 4, 2021: The Times of India
LUCKNOW: Months ahead of the high-stake UP assembly elections, the BJP received a shot in the arm as its supported candidates won 66 out of 75 seats in the Zila Panchayat chairman elections. As many as 21 of them had already won unopposed -- including in Varanasi and Gorakhpur -- at the time of nomination last week while the party-backed candidates emerged victorious on 45 out of 53 seats the polling for which was conducted on Saturday. A candidate backed by its ally Apna Dal won another seat, taking the NDA's tally to 67.
Apna Dal (S) backed candidate Rita Patel, however, faced a defeat in Jaunpur where independent candidate Srikala Reddy, wife of where mafia-turned-politician Dhananjay Singh emerged as a winner. The Anupriya Patel-led party supported candidate Radhika Patel though won from Sonebhadra, defeating SP's Jai Prakash Pandey alias Chokhur Pandey.
Immediately after the results were declared, Prime Minister Narednra Modi tweeted: “The win in Zila Panchayat chairman elections was people’s blessing for development, public service and rule of law. The credit goes to policies of CM Yogi Adityanath and workers of the BJP. Congratulations to UP government and BJP organisation.”
Home minister Amit Shah, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, UP BJP in charge Radha Mohan Singh and state party chief Swatantra Dev Singh hailed the landslide victory of BJP-backed candidates. However, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav called it a 'blatant misuse of power’ by the ruling party.
Samjawadi Party-backed candidates could win only five seats, including Etawah, which the Akhilesh Yadav-led party won unopposed after BJP did not field its candidate. The other seats SP-supported candidates won were Etah, Sant Kabirnagar, Azamgarh and Ballia.
The party in power has a distinct advantage in the zila panchayat president polls and even those who win as Independents often side with the ruling dispensation for obvious reasons, says a political analyst. "But even then SP's defeat in its strongholds like Mainpuri, Kannauj, Badaun, Firozabad and Farrukhabad is a big setback to the party which claims to be the biggest challenger to the BJP in the forthcoming assembly elections," he adds.
The electoral battle in the rural local bodies largely remained a one-sided contest in favour of the BJP which not only received the support of independents but also of BSP- backed ward members after party chief Mayawati positioned herself squarely against her bête noire, SP, and announced of not contesting the ZP chairman elections. There were also reports of SP backed members cross-voting in favour of the BJP, notably in Ayodhya.
BJP's win was especially significant in Ayodhya and Mathura -- epicentre of Hindutva politics -- where the BJP had faced a formidable challenge from the opposition, mainly the SP, during ZP ward elections. On Saturday, however, BJP-backed candidates sailed through easily in both the districts. In Ayodhya, BJP's Roli Singh, considered close to local MP Lallu Singh, defeated SP backed Indu Sen Yadav, the daughter-in-law of SP strongman and former MP, late Mitra Sen Yadav.
Likewise, in Mathura, BJP-supported Kisan Singh defeated RLD's Rajendra Singh Sikarwar. The Jayant Chaudhary-led political outfit, however, had its supported candidate, Mamta, winning from Baghpat, west UP district from where it contested after striking an unannounced alliance with the SP.
A keen contest was seen in Unnao where BJP-backed candidate Shakun Singh -- widow of slain SP MLC, Ajit Singh -- defeated independent candidate Arun Singh, considered close to expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger, who is in jail on charges of raping a minor. The BJP had earlier backed Arun but retracted after the Unnao rape survivor wrote to PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanth. In fact, the BJP had first announced to back Sangeeta, wife of Kuldeep Senger, for the ZP ward polls. The party, however, cancelled her candidature after a hue and cry.
The BJP-supported candidates also in won Congress pocket borough of Rae Bareli (Ranjana Chaudhary) and Amethi (Rajesh Agrahari). Rajesh happens to be a local businessman engaged in manufacture of spices. Reacting to poll results, CM Yogi said that the victory of BJP supported candidates was a reflection of public centric policies and measures taken by PM Narendra Modi. "It was also an indication of people's confidence in `sushashan' of the ruling BJP. This would strengthen the Panchayati Raj system in the state," Yogi said in a tweet. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh said that it was because of the hard work of party workers and popularity of PM Modi and CM Yogi which led to victory of BJP backed candidates.
Though not contested on party symbols, the rural local bodies polls had turned into a contest of prestige after BJP formally announced its supported candidates, stoking a political frenzy in the opposition camp, mainly the SP. Experts said that BJP would further up its efforts in increasing its footprints in the rural precincts which would determine its electoral prospects in the 2022 assembly elections.
