UP Municipal Elections 2023: On one side where the BJP lost the Karnataka elections to Congress, the saffron party registered a massive victory in Uttar Pradesh municipal elections, almost doubling its seat tally from 2018. With every passing hour, the victory margin of the BJP candidates kept widening. With these results, the party has proved, once again, that it remains invincible in Uttar Pradesh and that Yogi Adityanath is its lucky mascot.
- The ruling BJP swept the mayoral elections winning the posts in 16 of the 17 municipal corporations while the official results for the Varanasi mayoral election is yet to be declared.
- Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who claimed victory in all the 17 municipal corporations, thanked the people of Uttar Pradesh and congratulated BJP workers for forming a "triple-engine government" in the state after the party's "biggest victory" in the urban local body polls.
- The party's candidates won in Lucknow, Ayodhya, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura-Vrindavan, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Meerut.
- The urban local body polls were held in two phases -- on May 4 and May 11 -- to elect 17 mayors and 1,401 corporators. Nineteen corporators were elected unopposed, according to the State Election Commission.
- Of the 17 municipal corporations, the BJP repeated its candidates only in Kanpur city, Bareilly and Moradabad and all three proved to be successful.
- The BJP has improved its performance since it had won only 14 of the 16 mayoral polls in the 2017 and this time, it has won all 17 mayoral polls-including the newly formed Shahjahanpur municipal corporation.
- Besides elections to 17 posts of mayor, 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 the urban local bodies' polls in Uttar Pradesh.
- Voting was also held to elect 1,401 corporators. As many as 19 corporators were elected unopposed.
What led to BJP's massive victory in Municipal polls
Riding on the momentum gained from the 2022 assembly elections, the BJP registered a massive victory in the municipal elections. Among various factors which worked in the favour of the party is UP CM Yogi Adityanath's leadership.
The Yogi government's resolve against the mafia-raj in the state and Chief Minister's statement that criminals and gangsters will be dissolved to dust in the state also helped BJP's prospects in the civic polls.
Samajwadi Party suffers humiliating defeat
The Samajwadi Party, which had claimed to provide an alternative to the BJP, has suffered a humiliating defeat, and its opposition to the 'bulldozer politics' has proved to be a non-starter.
The BSP's efforts to make a comeback ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls have also fallen flat and the party could not register its presence in UP.
The Congress' performance in municipal polls in Uttar Pradesh has negated the joy of its victory in Karnataka. The party could not contest all seats due to lack of candidates and victory still remains a distant dream for the party in the state.
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