BSP made a great comeback in UP panchayat polls, BJP suffers heavy losses panchayat polls, BJP,UP panchayat polls, BJP suffers heavy losses in UP zila panchayat polls, zila panchayat polls Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party
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- Category: UP Political News
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 03 November 2015 15:36
BSP made a great comeback in UP panchayat polls, BJP suffers heavy losses panchayat polls, BJP,UP panchayat polls, BJP suffers heavy losses in UP zila panchayat polls, zila panchayat polls Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party
After drawing an embarrassing blank in the Lok Sabha elections last year, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got a fresh lease of life Monday by emerging as a frontrunner in the zila panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh.
While the final results are yet to be declared for 3,112 wards in 74 districts — counting was on in at least 10 districts late into the night — at least 615 BSP-backed candidates emerged victorious.
The zila panchayat elections are not contested on party symbols and some parties, particularly the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), did not officially announce the candidates they had supported.
The BSP made a clear comeback in districts like Agra, Azamgarh and Ambedkar Nagar, where it had lost ground to SP in 2012 and the BJP in 2014. According to party leaders, BSP supporters won 19 out of 51 wards in Agra district, 26 out of 52 in Aligarh and 25 out of 86 in Azamgarh. Coming less than a year before the Assembly elections, the results may signal a new political scenario in the state where the SP and BJP were being tagged as the main players, with the BSP lagging behind. The BSP had entered the panchayat elections hesitantly, with Mayawati and other leaders predicting that the elections would be “bloody” and “violent” under the SP government.
Aspirants supported by the BJP lost 40 of the 48 seats in Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, including in Jayapur, the village he adopted as an MP. They won around 20 of 58 wards in home minister Rajnath Singh’s constituency Lucknow and just about a dozen of 56 seats in Deoria represented by central minister Kalraj Mishra.
The panchayat elections were not contested on party lines but political parties backed a large number of about four lakh candidates who contested for 3,112 zila panchayat and 77,576 kshetra panchayat members’ posts.
“At least 60% of the results of the zila panchayat ward elections are yet to be declared,” a state election commission official said.
BJP has lost 50 seats out of 58 in Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency. Counting is still going on and final results are awaited.
The party could only win four of the 28 seats in Home Minister Rajnath Singh's Lucknow constituency, while it lost 49 out of 56 seats in Deora, which is the constituency of Union Minister Kalraj Mishra.
The panchayat election results are crucial for BJP as they have been trying to woo voters from rural areas. Uttar Pradesh assembly polls will be held in 2017.
Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati has made a great comeback, while the ruling Samajwadi Party has also performed well at the panchayat elections.