BJP set to sweep local body polls

This year,elections were conducted for 12 mayors,980 corporators,chairmen of 186 Nagar Palika Parishads and 388 Nagar Panchayats and 9,624 members of these Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats.

The six seats where BJP candidates were declared winner are Moradabad,Aligarh,Gorakhpur,Jhansi,Varanasi and Agra. BJP candidate in Varanasi Ram Gopal Modle defeated Congress candidate Ashok Singh by 62,117 votes. BJP’s Agra candidate Indrajeet Valmiki defeated independent candidate Kartar Singh Bharti by 12,467 votes.

BSP-supported Abhilasha Gupta was declared new mayor of Allahabad,where she defeated BJP candidate Kamla Singh by 59,555 votes.

Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi,who was cabinet minister in the previous BSP government.

BJP’s Kiran Raj won in Jhansi,defeating Congress candidate Nirmala Bilharia. Ruling Samajwadi Party-supported independent candidate I S Tomer was declared winner in Bareilly. Tomer defeated BJP candidate Gulshan Anand by more than 47,000 votes.

BJP’s Beena Agrawal defeated Peace Party candidate Humaun Kabir in Moradabad by 70,111 votes. SP had won this seat in the 2006 election when S T Hasan was elected mayor there. BJP’s Shakuntala Bharti defeated independent candidate Razia Khan in Aligarh by 41,834 votes.

In Gorakhpur,BJP’s Satya Pandey won against Congress candidate Surhita Kareem by 33,156 votes.

In the four seats where results were awaited,BJP candidate Jagat Veer Drona was leading by a huge margin in Kanpur,Harikant Ahluwalia in Meerut and Dinesh Sharma in Lucknow. SP-supported independent candidate Sudhan Rawat was leading in Ghaziabad against BJP candidate Teluram.

Congress candidates stood second in three seats where results were declared. In the four seats where results were awaited,Congress was in second position on three seats.

The state municipal elections had become a battleground between the Congress and BJP as both were using the polls to reactivate their party organisation and raise the morale of workers after the drubbing in the Assembly elections earlier this year. Unlike these two parties,the ruling SP and main opposition BSP had decided not to sponsor candidates,mainly because both are rural-based.

The BJP and Congress contested all seats in municipal corporations and around 75 per cent seats of Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats on party symbols. A large number of independents and candidates of smaller parties were also in the fray. The SP and BSP had allowed party workers to contest the election,but not allotted them party symbols,nor could they use party flags.

Addressing a press conference in Allahabad,Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Jag Mohan Yadav said that this was among the most peaceful urban local body elections in recent history. “Whether before or during the polling or counting of votes,the municipal elections this time have been mostly incident-free. Last time,re-polling was ordered on around 250 to 300 booths. This time,re-polling has been ordered in only around 10 booths and that too due to issues like missing voter lists. Violence was not the reason for re-polling. We were able to hold peaceful elections with the help of the local and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC),” said Yadav.

The local body elections have been conducted in 71 districts so far. Polling in the remaining four districts of Auraiya,Kannauj,Ramabai Bagar and Mathura is scheduled later this month.