UP civic poll: BJP sweeps big cities, but fails to open account in 36 districts

Lucknow, Dec 3: The BJP won 14 of the 16 mayoral seats in the recently held Uttar Pradesh civic elections. A close analysis of the results show that the saffron party's sweep was confined to the big cities and it, in fact, fared poorly in the smaller districts and towns, where independents reigned supreme.

The BJP failed to open its account in as many as 36 districts, while many of its nominees also lost their deposits at several places.

The data provided by the state Election Commission revealed that of the 1,299 seats of corporators, BJP candidates emerged victorious in 596. The Samajwadi Party (SP) won 202 seats, while the BSP and Congress bagged 147 and 110 seats, respectively.

The saffron party, however, fared badly in the elections to the nagar palika parishad and nagar panchayats. Of the 198 seats of nagar palika paishad presidents, the BJP could win only 70. The SP finished second with 45 seats.

The BJP could win only 17.53 % seats of the nagar palika parishad members, the data revealed. The party emerged victorious in only 922 of the 5,260 seats.

Similarly, the saffron party managed to win only 100 of the 438 nagar panchayat president seats. The SP won 83 seats, while the BSP emerged victorious on 45 seats.

Only 664 BJP nominees could make it to the nagar panchayats as members. The total seats of Nagar Panchayat were 5,433.

BJP leaders here said that the party would analyse the civic polls results at length over the next few days. "We could have done better," said a senior BJP leader here on Sunday.

SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary said that the BJP's claim of sweeping the urban local bodies polls was "far from true".

"The SP may have lost the mayoral polls but we have done far better in the smaller districts and towns," Chaudhary said.