UP urban civic polls: Small towns lead the way, cities bring down turnout numbers

The stark difference in voter turnout in cities and small towns could be gauged from the data released by the State Election Commission and respective district administrations after the polling was concluded.

For example, in the state capital Lucknow, the average voter turnout in Nagar Nigam (city) was 36.97%, whereas the average polling percentage in 10 nagar panchayats (towns and kasbas) in the district was as high as 64. The low turnout in highly populated Lucknow city thereby brought down the overall turnout in Lucknow district to 38.62%.

Similarly in Varanasi, the turnout in Varanasi municipal corporation area was 40.42% even as Gangapur Nagar panchayat in the district recorded a huge turnout at 78.54%.

In districts having municipal corporations along with Nagar Panchayats, the voter turnout ranged between 40 to 55% — Saharanpur (56.37%), Jhansi (53.68%), Firozabad (52.26%), Moradabad (50%), Mathura (44.3%), Gorakhpur (42.43%), and Agra (40.32%).

In Mainpuri district, where Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) alleged that the BJP government misused the police and administrative machinery and threatened Muslim voters to suppress turnout, the polling percentage stood at 56.50%.

“Municipal Corporations are completely urban and people get their civic grievances addressed by directly contacting the municipal staff. But in small towns with Nagar Panchayats and Nagar Palikas, people still have to depend on corporators and chairpersons to get their civic and administrative problems resolved. So, to get a candidate of their contact elected, people turn up to cast vote in a significant way,” said a BJP leader, adding this year’s trend of more voter turnout in small towns vis-à-vis cities was not an exception.

Voting on Thursday was held at 23,626 polling stations for electing representatives for 7,593 posts.

These 390 local bodies have as many as 10 significant Municipal Corporations such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s town Gorakhpur and state Capital Lucknow, besides districts like Prayagraj, Agra, Mathura-Vrindavan, Jhansi Moradabad, Firozabad and Saharanpur.

State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar in a statement said that repoll would be held in one Shamsher Nagar ward in Chakiya Nagar Panchayat in Chandauli district because of an error found in the name of a candidate on the ballot paper. An inquiry has been ordered into the matter,” he said.

The SEC said that arrangements for videography, CCTV, and webcasting were made at highly sensitive polling stations for continuous monitoring.

ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that polling was held peacefully across the state and no unwanted incident was reported in any district. “A total of 32 persons were detained in Sambhal district for attempting bogus voting,” the ADG said.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party in a memorandum to the State Election Commission alleged irregularities in polling and alleged the “party in power” (BJP) was threatening voters, getting invalid votes polled, and attacking Opposition candidates. It also said that a specific community was being stopped from polling their votes. “…we demand that immediate action is taken on these complaints and free and fair polling is done,” read the memorandum.

There were complaints from Lucknow, Pratapgarh, Saharanpur, Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Firozabad, Varanasi, and Ghazipur.

BJP state unit president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, on the other hand, expressed gratitude to the State Election Commission, officials, and the police staff engaged in holding a free and fair election process. He asserted that the BJP will record a grand victory in the elections.

In 2017, BJP dominated cities, Opp & Independents in small towns

In 2017, when elections were held in 652 urban local bodies, the BJP had won 14 of the total 16 mayor posts, 596 corporators in municipal corporations, 70 seats of chairpersons in Nagar Palika Parishads, 923 wards in these Nagar Palika Parishads, and 100 seats of chairpersons in Nagar Panchayats and 664 wards in these Nagar Panchayats.

The SP could not win a single mayor post, but it won 202 seats of corporators, 45 chairpersons in Nagar Palika Parishads, and its 477 members, and 8 chairpersons in Nagar Panchayats with its 453 members.

The BSP had won two mayor seats, 596 corporators, 70 seats of Nagar Palika Parishad chairpersons and its 923 members, 45 Nagar panchayat chairperson posts along with its 218 members.

The Congress had won 110 seats of corporators, 9 Nagar Palika Parishad chairpersons with 158 wards, and 17 Nagar Panchayat chairpersons with 126 members.

Independents had performed better in comparison to the BSP, SP and Congress. Independent candidates recorded win on 225 seats of corporators in municipal corporations. They also won 43 seats of Nagar Palika Parishad chairpersons and 3,379 members in these local bodies, and 182 seats of Nagar panchayat chairpersons with 3,876 members.

Polling for the second and final phase of elections will be held in the remaining 372 local bodies across 37 districts on May 11.

The counting of votes will take place on May 13.