4.32 Crore Voters, 14,684 Posts, 83,507 Candidates: The Sheer Scale Of UP Nagar Nikay Chunav

UP Nagar Nikay Chunav 2023: Elections to 760 urban local bodies in Uttar Pradesh hold special significance as they are taking place less than a year ahead of the 2024 general election.

UP Nagar Nikay Chunav 2023: The number of voters has increased by 96.33 lakh as compared to 2017

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UP Nagar Nikay Chunav 2023: Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state in terms of population, is gearing up for urban local body polls this month and the results will help political parties gauge the mood of the voters ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha election.

While the UP nagar nikay chunav may not be of similar stature as the Karnataka Assembly election, its scale alone is mind-boggling -- 4,32,31,827 crore voters, 23,617 polling booths and 14,684 posts.

The two-phase urban local body elections will be held on May 4 and 11. Votes will be counted on May 13.

UP Nagar Nikay Chunav 2023: 4.32 Crore Voters, 83,507 Candidates In Fray

This time, the elections will be on a larger scale than 2017 as the number of local bodies has increased by 107, which include one Municipal Corporation and one Nagar Palikar Parishad and 105 new Nagar Panchayats.

The urban local body elections will see polls being held for 17 Municipal Corporations, 199 municipalities (Nagar Palika Parishad) and 544 Nagar Panchayats.

Moreover, the number of voters has also increased by 96.33 lakh as compared to 2017. The total number of posts, too, has increased by 2,024.

Thus, a total of 4.32 crore voters will go to the hustings to elect 17 mayors, 1,420 municipal corporators, 199 chairpersons of municipal councils, 5,327 municipal council members, 544 chairpersons of town panchayats and 7,177 members of town panchayats.

This time, nine of the 17 mayoral posts have been reserved -- one for Scheduled Caste category (Jhansi), one for Scheduled Caste woman (Agra), two for OBC woman (Shahjahanpur and Firozabad), two for OBC category (Saharanpur and Meerut), and three for women (Lucknow, Kanpur and Ghaziabad).

As many as 83,507 candidates have filed nominations for various posts. While 37 districts will go to polls in the first phase on May 4, the second phase of voting will be held in 38 districts on May 11.

If you don't know the difference between the three bodies, here is what differentiates them:

Municipal Corporation Election

A municipal corporation is the biggest body in Uttar Pradesh. For an area to become a municipal corporation, its population should be at least five lakh. The head of a municipal corporation is called mayor.

The 17 municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh are Shahjahanpur, Agra, Bareilly, Firozabad, Aligarh, Ayodhya, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Moradabad, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mathura, Meerut, Saharanpur and Varanasi. Shahjahanpur has been made a municipal corporation this time.

Municipalities (Nagar Palika Parishad)

A municipality is smaller than the Municipal Corporation but bigger than Nagar Panchayat. For an area to become a municipality, its population should be between 1-5 lakh. The head of a municipality is called the municipal president, who is the administrative head. If the population of a municipality exceeds five lakh, then it is made a municipal corporation.

Nagar Panchayat

The nagar panchayat is the smallest body. These are basically areas that are under transition from village to town. That is, they are neither urban nor rural.

For an area to become a nagar panchayat, its population should be between 30,000 to a lakh. There are a total of 493 nagar panchayats in UP. The head of the nagar panchayat is called Nagar Panchayat president or chairman.

What Happened in 2017 UP Urban Local Body Polls?

In the 2017 polls, Yogi Adityanath in his first year as Chief Minister, guided BJP to a thumping win in mayoral elections by bagging 14 of 16 municipal corporations.

BSP won two seats, Meerut and Aligarh, while Samajwadi Party and Congress could not open their accounts.

The BJP, which ousted the Samajwadi Party government, also won the most municipalities -- 70 out of 198. Of 438 nagar panchayats, the saffron party won 100. Independents emerged victorious in 182 seats.