Enough of hype in the media about the Congress win in Karnataka. The post-result drama and all shenanigans who will occupy the key chairs forces people to ponder about the ATM theory.
Nevertheless, the elections in Uttar Pradesh – of course for Urban Local Bodies – were equally important, and the ‘message’ from the vote count could be more important than the Sickularism singing paeans for Rahul Gandhi and his party. It’s more than the traditional Bhakti.
Importantly in Uttar Pradesh, the results of the ULB polls were a setback for both the BSP of Mayawati and also the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. For long, these two parties dominated the political mind space in Uttar Pradesh, and even the defeat of the 2017 and 2022 assembly polls did not change their politics.
The BJP managed to pick up 55 of the 147 seats reserved for OBCs.
Importantly yet again, Akhilesh Yadav also failed to win over the non-Yadav OBC votes.
In 17 mayoral seats of municipal corporations, the Lotus party won them all. The key takeaway is two were reserved for SC, and four were reserved for OBCs. Hence, the big picture message is Yogi’s politics has worked, and hence he is rightly talking about the ‘triple engine’ governance system in India’s most populous State.
Take another set of statistics. Out of 82 SC-reserved seats for chairpersons in Nagar Panchayats, the BJP won a maximum of 37, followed by SP with 14, and Mayawati-led BSP could win only five seats.
The Congress managed one, and so did RLD with its claims over Jat votes. Among Independents, 31 Scheduled Caste candidates were elected.
In the 24 seats reserved for SCs in Nagar Palika Parishads, the BJP won a maximum of 9. Here too, the Congress performance was merely two, and SP won 4, the BSP – 3.
Out of 120 of the BJP’s OBC candidates and 48 from the SC were elected to the posts of chairpersons and mayors.
It is also worth taking note that among OBC candidates fielded by political parties in Nagar Panchayat chairperson seats, 90 of the BJP’s nominees were elected. Independents won 83. Out of the 545 Nagar panchayat chairperson seats, Samajwadi Party candidates won 38, while BSP of Mayawati got only 23.
Of the 90 OBC candidates of the BJP, 27 were elected in unreserved seats, while eight were elected in seats reserved only for women.
Among the SP’s 38 OBC winners, 14 were elected in unreserved seats, and two in seats reserved for women. Among BSP’s 22 OBC winners, seven were elected in unreserved seats and three on seats reserved for women.
Other parties to have OBC candidates elected were the RLD (5), AAP (4), RJD (2), Apna Dal (Sonelal) (1), Nishad Party (1) and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) (2).
Of the 199 Nagar Palika Parishads, 53 chairpersons among which were reserved for OBCs (including OBC women), the BJP won 15 of the reserved seats. Eight other BJP OBC candidates won in unreserved seats, and three in seats reserved for women, bringing the total elected BJP OBC nominees for chairpersons to 26.
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.
Media reports say of the 17 municipal corporations, the BJP repeated its candidates only in Kanpur city, Bareilly and Moradabad and all three proved to be successful.
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