Clean sweep for BJP in UP mayoral polls
| Date :14-May-2023 |
Celebrations at office of BJP after results of Urban Local body elections were declared, in Lucknow on Saturday. (PTI)
LUCKNOW :
THE ruling BJP swept the mayoral elections in Uttar Pradesh winning the posts in all the 17 municipal corporations 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 after the party’s “biggest victory” in the urban local body polls.
The party’s candidates won in Varanasi, Lucknow, Ayodhya, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura-Vrindavan, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Meerut.
The urban local body polls were held in two phases -- on May 4 and May 11 -- to elect 17 Mayors and 1,401 corporators. Nineteen corporators were elected unopposed, according to the State Election Commission. Of the 17 municipal corporations, the BJP repeated its candidates only in Kanpur City, Bareilly and Moradabad and all three emerged victorious.
Adityanath said the win was a result of better coordination between the government and the organisation.
Flanked by Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak at a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Adityanath said the BJP has won all the 17 municipal corporations for the first time. “In all 17 municipal corporations, voters have reposed faith in BJP,” he said.
Adityanath had led the campaign for the urban local body polls, holding several election meetings across the state. During the campaign, he had repeatedly urged voters to add a third wheel or third engine to the “double-engine” government in Uttar Pradesh. In the Lucknow Municipal Corporation, the BJP’s Sushma Kharkwal won the mayoral election by a margin of 2,04,141 votes. According to the State Election Commission, Kharkwal bagged 5,02,660 votes while Vandana Mishra of the Samajwadi Party got 2,98,519 votes. In Varanasi, the BJP’s Ashok Kumar Tiwari won the mayor’s seat defeating his Samajwadi Party rival Om Prakash Singh by a margin on 1,33,137 votes. While Tiwari bagged 2,91,852 votes, Singh got 1,58,715 votes.
In the temple town of Ayodhya, BJP candidate Girish Pati Tripathi won the mayoral election, defeating his nearest rival Ashish of the Samajwadi Party by a margin of 35,638 votes. Tripathi bagged 77,494 votes. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate Rehan secured the third position pocketing 15,107 votes. BSP candidate Ram Murti got 12,852 votes and Pramila Rajput of the Congress 4,084 votes, according to SEC.
In Ghaziabad, the BJP’s Sunita Dayal secured 3,50,905 votes to defeat Nisara Khan of the BSP, who got only 63,249 votes. Pushpa Rawat of the Congress came third (with 58,951 votes), while SP’s Poonam Yadav came a distant fourth (with 57,608 votes). In Jhansi, the BJP’s Bihari Lal Arya bagged 1,23,503 votes and defeated his nearest rival Arvind Kumar of the Congress by a margin of 83,587 votes.