UP Nikay Chunav Results: Big Gain for BJP In Early Trends As It Leads On 14 Out Of 17 Mayoral Seats

UP Municipal Election Results: Early trends suggest BJP leading on 14 out of 17 mayoral seats in Uttar Pradesh.

BJP leads on 14 mayoral seats in Uttar Pradesh including Prayagraj and Gorakhpur.

Source : PTI

UP Municipal Election Results 2023: Counting is underway for the Uttar Pradesh urban local body polls that were held in two phases on May 4 and May 11. According to the early trends, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)'s mayoral candidates are leading on 14 seats while Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress are ahead on one seat each. Notably, BJP is leading on Prayagraj which recently went through a sour episode following gangster Atiq Ahmed's murder.

The BJP candidate from Ayodhya is leading with over 4,000 votes. Trends have begun coming in on 59 Nagar Palika Parishad Chairpersons with BJP leading 21, SP on 23 and BSP on 5. On Nagar Panchayat Presidents, trends are in on 70 out of 544 seats. The saffron party is ahead on 21 seats while SP is leading on 27.

Prayagraj, which recently witnessed gangster Atiq Ahmed's murder and massive security concerns, is bringing good news for the BJP whose mayor candidate is leading here. In Kanpur, a tough battle is underway as Congress leading from the seat after BJP and SP took the lead in early trends.

BSP candidate is leading from the Agra seat whereas BJP's mayor candidate leading with 900 votes in Gorakhpur.

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The local body elections are a stern test for the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government with votes cast during the two phases of the urban local body polls being counted on Saturday. The results hold importance for BJP, Congress and Samajwadi Party as it will be a platform to showcase their strength before the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha election. UP sends a maximum 80 MPs to Lok Sabha.

The State Election Commission (SEC) said 353 counting centres have been set up. According to the SEC, 83,378 candidates were in the fray for 14,522 posts. 

The two-phase polling saw about 53 per cent voters exercising their franchise.

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.

A day before the counting on Friday, the Samajwadi Party (SP) claimed that the election manual was recently amended, deleting portions related to the declaration of votes received by candidates after each round of counting. The party accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of plotting a "conspiracy" to "influence" the results of the local body elections and change the mandate of the people.

According to Manoj Pandey, the SP's chief whip in the Legislative Assembly, the election manual for local body polls includes a provision for writing on a blackboard the details of valid votes obtained by a candidate, invalid votes, and the total votes polled after each round of counting.

Furthermore, he stated that they must immediately declare these details, feed the data online, and announce the same via the public address system. There is a provision for announcing the results every two hours, he added.