Did BJP Really Sweep the UP Civic Polls? A Look at the Numbers

Is this victory a reflection of the March assembly elections, where BJP won over 70 percent of the seats?

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP State President Mahendra Nath Pandey celebrate the victory of the party in the state civic body elections at the party office in Lucknow on Friday.

(Photo: PTI)

The BJP recorded a seemingly astounding victory in the UP civic polls, winning in 14 of the 16 municipal corporations. But is this victory just a reflection of the March Assembly elections, where they won over 70 percent of the seats?

If the performance at the municipal corporations is not taken into account, then the victory in absolute terms lies with the Independents. The BJP, on the other hand, has had a mere 20-30 percent increase in its account.

Let us a look at the performance, divided into three sections:

- Municipal Corporations

- Municipalities

- Nagar Panchayats

Municipal Corporations: 16

Mayoral Seats

The BJP won 14 of the 16 seats, while BSP secured two.

• In 2012, the BJP had 10 seats under its account
• BSP has secured the Aligarh seat

Councillors

There are 1,300 posts for councillors in UP.

• Of these, the BJP has secured 573 seats
• Samajwadi Party ranks second in the race with 185 seats, while BSP ranks third with 146 seats
• Congress won 101 seats
• Aam Aadmi Party won 3 seats, while Owaisi’s party AIMIM has got 12 seats

Municipalities: 198

Chairman:

• The BJP won 58 seats
• Samajwadi Party is at second place with 38 seats and BSP is in third place with 22 seats
• Congress won 7 seats, while Aam Aadmi Party and AIMIM have not made any inroads

Nagar Panchayats: 438

Adhyaksh:

• The BJP won 94 seats
• Seventy-nine seats have been secured by the Samajwadi Party, while the BSP bagged 41 seats

The VIP Seats

The VIP seats are those which have remained in the limelight during the elections, with the entire state's attention on them. The VIP seats include – Gorakhpur, Amethi, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Kaushambi and Allahabad.

Gorakhpur

While BJP’s Sitaram Jaiswal has been elected mayor from Gorakhpur, the overall performance by the party in their traditional bastion has been weak. The Gorakhpur municipal corporation has 70 councillors, of which only 28 are BJP members. This translates to a mere 40 percent.

The Samajwadi Party has taken second place in the municipality, with 19 seats. Independents secured 17 seats, while Congress gained 2 and BSP took home 4 seats.

Yogi Adityanath’s Ward 68 saw Independent candidate Nadira Khatoon emerge victorious.

Varanasi

The BJP has secured the mayor’s seat in PM Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency. However, only 36 of the 90 municipality seats have been won by the BJP. Meanwhile, Congress ranks second with 22 seats and SP is third with 13. Eleven seats have been secured by Independent candidates.

Amethi

The Congress fared poorly in its home turf of Amethi. The post of Amethi Nagar Panchayat Adhyaksh has been won by the BJP.

Amethi’s Jais municipal seat is also with the BJP. The SP won the Gauriganj Municipality seat.

What is surprising is that the Congress did not even field candidates in Amethi and Musafirkhana, where Nagar Panchayat polls were held.

Allahabad

The BJP retained the title of mayor in Allahabad with the party’s Abhilasha Gupta Nandy winning the post.

However, in the fight for the councillors’ seats, in which the BJP secured 22, SP emerged victorious with 24 seats in their account.

Congress secured 11 seats, while BSP took 3 seats. Independents won 18 seats, while Shiv Sena and AIMIM took home one seat each.

Kaushambi

The BJP lost in all six municipal panchayat seats in Kaushambi. Kaushambi is the home district of Deputy Chief Minister and former BJP President Keshav Prasad Maurya.

(This article has been translated from Quint Hindi)