Though the ruling BJP swept the Uttar Pradesh local body polls winning all the 17 mayor seats and bagging more than 50 per cent of the corporator seats, the elections saw the AIMIM and the AAP making fresh inroads into state politics.
While the two parties did not win any mayor’s seat, 19 candidates of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won as corporators, while eight Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates also became corporators.
The AAP and AIMIM won three seats each for the post of chairperson of Nagar Palika Parishads in the state.
As many as 33 AIMIM candidates were elected as members of Nagar Palika Parishads, while 30 candidates of the AAP also registered wins for the same post.
Six AAP candidates and one AIMIM candidate won the election for the post of Nagar Panchayat chairperson.
In the election held for the post of Nagar Panchayat members, 61 AAP candidates emerged victorious, and 23 AIMIM candidates tasted success.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), the total seats won by the AAP and AIMIM are 108 and 80 respectively.
The total vote share of AAP and AIMIM (after taking into account all the posts) in the urban local bodies’ elections stood at 1.63 per cent and 1.62 per cent respectively, the SEC said.
Hailing the performance of AAP candidates, party leader Shekhar Dixit, who extensively campaigned in the state, told PTI, “The party registered a significant win for the post of chairman of Nagar Palika Parishad in Rampur, where party’s candidate Sana Khanam secured a win by bagging 43,121 votes. BJP’s Masarat Mujeeb was the runner-up with 32,173 votes and SP’s Fatma Jabi came third with 16,273 votes.” Dixit said the AAP has become a “viable alternative” to the BJP.
“People have started drifting away from the Samajwadi Party and are seeing a viable alternative (to the BJP) in AAP. If anybody is doing the job of an opposition party in the country, it is either Rahul Gandhi of the Congress or the AAP duo of Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh.” National spokesperson of AIMIM Syed Asim Waqar said the party is compiling the details of the winning candidates.
On being asked about the possible reasons behind the party’s performance in the current polls, Waqar told PTI, “Voters are very intelligent. Earlier there was a lack of education. But today, there is a B Tech qualified person or an MBA pass out virtually in every household.
“When the level of education improves, there is a visible change in the way of thinking. The voters know who will stand for them and their rights,” he said.
In the two-phase urban local body elections, voting was also held to elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of Nagar Palika parishads, 542 chairpersons of Nagar panchayats and 7,104 members of Nagar panchayats.
In all, 162 public representatives were elected unopposed, while there were as many as 83,378 candidates in the poll fray for 14,522 posts.
In the urban local body elections, 53 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the second phase covering 38 districts on May 11, while the voter turnout in the first phase on May 4 was 52 per cent covering 37 districts of the state.
According to the SEC, 4.32 crore people were eligible to cast their votes in the urban local body polls.
In 2017, the polls were held in three phases and the overall polling percentage was 53 per cent.
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