UP Nagar Nikay Chunav: Voting Begins In Phase 1 Of Urban Body Polls, Will Set Tone For 2024 Lok Sabha Election

UP Nagar Nikay Chunav 2023: CM Adityanath led BJP's campaign, saying the state was becoming 'apradh-apradhi mukt', while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked the govt on cleanliness.

Polling officials leave for their respective polling booths after collecting EVMs for Uttar Pradesh municipal elections

Source : PTI

Voting has begun in the first of the two-phase urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh, which is being seen a prelude to the 2024 parliamentary elections in the politically crucial state. The second phase will be held on May 11, with counting on May 13.

According to the State Election Commission, voters in 37 districts will vote in the first phase of the polls on Thursday to elect 7,593 representatives, including 10 mayors and 820 corporators. 

Altogether 44,232 candidates are in the fray in the opening round. As per a PTI report quoting SEC officials, 85 representatives, including 10 corporators, have already been elected unopposed.

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

UP Nagar Nikay Chunav 2023: Voting In First Phase Begins

• More than 2.40 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the first round of voting.
• The districts where mayoral election will be held in the first phase are Saharanpur, Agra, Moradabad, Firozabad, Mathura, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi.
• Besides, polling will be held for posts of 103 nagar palika parishad chairpersons and 2,740 nagar palika parishad members. Voters will also decide the fate of 275 nagar panchayat chairpersons and 3,645 nagar panchayat members.
• On the ground, BJP and Samajwadi Party campaigned aggressively while there was little presence of Congress, with most of its top leaders busy in Karnataka polls.
• BSP chief Mayawati, who herself did not campaign, issued an appeal through social media to the people to vote for her party.
• Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led the BJP's campaign, holding nearly 20 public meetings in a week. Adityanath promised "cleaning of garbage" along with the "cleaning of mafia and criminals", days after gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed was killed in Prayagraj.
• While BJP has not released any manifesto, it has reached out to voters with a "nagar vikas sankalp patra" in which the party has highlighted the ongoing works in infrastructure development and has claimed the state was becoming "apradh-apradhi mukt" (free from crime and criminals).
• SP chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked the BJP regime on cleanliness as well as law and order in the state. Yadav alleged BJP was indulging in the politics of "spreading hate, Hindu-Muslim (divide) and conflicts in society". He also claimed the BJP and the BSP have forged an "internal understanding" for the upcoming polls.
• The Aam Aadmi Party has also jumped into the fray and is hopeful of staging upsets. "AAP and its leader Sanjay Singh got good support and response from the people during the campaign. People in the state want a change, and we are hopeful that the party will stage upsets in these elections," senior party leader Shekhar Dixit told PTI.
• 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.