In stark contrast to the Karnataka lection results on Saturday, the Urban Local Body elections in Uttar Pradesh aren’t likely to offer any thrills, with the BJP heavily tipped to sail through as it has done in elections past in the state.
The BJP hasn’t faced any electoral challenges in Uttar Pradesh since the Modi juggernaut swept through the country in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections as well as the 2019 Lok Sabha elections further cemented the saffron hold on the state.
With strong organisation, the party has also dominated local body polls, including Panchayat elections.
Polling had taken place on May 10, along with Karnataka elections, for 17 mayoral seats and 1,420 corporators across various municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh Urban Local Body elections. Votes were also cast for 199 seats of chairman of different Nagar Palika Parishads and 5,327 members in them. Around 550 Nagar Panchayat chairpersons and 7,178 members in them are also elected through these polls.
In all, around 83,372 candidates contested the Urban Local Body polls. Among them, the focus is on the mayor seats in 17 corporations across major urban centres like Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Meerut, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur.
The BJP has also been helped by a fractured opposition. The Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress all contested the elections. With the BSP giving strong representation to Muslim candidates in ticket distribution, the SP may suffer a split in its vote base.
The election saw Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath leading the party’s campaign with around 50 rallies in 13 cities. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was a distant second in the campaign blitzkrieg. Among other key opposition leaders, BSP chief Mayawati did not hold a single rally, while there were no visits to the state by Congress general secretary incharge for UP Priyanka Gandhi who chose to focus on Karnataka.
The BJP’s pitch has been good governance model of the Yogi Adityanath government, with action against the mafia being a big talking point.
The ULB elections were held in the wake of two major incidents in Prayagraj – the killing of Umesh Pal who was a key witness in the 2005 murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal, and the unprecedented crackdown on the clout of mafia don-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad’s group said to be responsible for Umesh Pal’s murder.
The next big turn came when Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead in full public view while in police custody.
Amid these developments, the BJP amplified its pitch on law and order, hoping the CM’s “mitti mein mila denge” warning for gangsters made on the floor of the Assembly resonated with the voters.
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