Bharatiya Janata Party-led Yogi Adityanath government 2.0 is facing a challenging task of retaining all the 10 mayoral seats it won in the 2017 municipal polls in the first phase of civic elections to be held on Thursday.
The urban local bodies’ polls are the last major political contest ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
For the main opposition Samajwadi Party, the task is daunting to register its presence in urban areas of the state. In the 2017 mayoral elections, SP drew a blank while its arch rival had won mayoral elections in Aligarh and Meerut. For all major political contenders in UP, the local bodies elections are crucial as its impact will remain till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
There is a direct contest between the BJP and the SP in most of the constituencies in the civic elections, while at some places the candidates of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress are turning the polls into a triangular contest.
In the 2017 civic elections, out of a total of 16 municipal corporations, except Aligarh and Meerut municipal corporations which were won by the BSP, the ruling BJP had won all the municipal corporations. This time one more town, Shahjahanpur, has been upgraded as nagar nigam and the number of mayoral seats is now 17.
The ruling BJP has fielded around 400 Muslim candidates in the civic polls, but none for the mayor’s post. Similarly, the BSP has fielded eight Muslim mayoral candidates out of the 10 in the first phase.
In the first phase, elections will be held on Thursday in Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Mathura-Vrindavan and Firozabad municipal corporations. The BJP has re-nominated outgoing mayor Vinod Agarwal in Moradabad while new faces have been given a chance in the remaining seats of mayors.
The ruling party organisation has deployed its might in the local bodies elections. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited 21 districts from April 24 to May 2 where polling is scheduled in the first phase. Election meetings have been held in all the 10 municipal corporations going to polls in the first phase. The chief minister has held two to three rallies in Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi.
Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak have also campaigned and sought support for the party candidates by visiting most of the districts. BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary also visited two to three districts every day.
The BJP also started the process of getting SP, Congress and BSP leaders to join the party to win the civic elections. Rahis Chandra Shukla, who was the SP candidate in the Prayagraj assembly elections, was inducted into the party. Former state secretary of SP, Munna Tripathi, veteran leader of SP in Farrukhabad, Narendra Singh Yadav, his daughter and district panchayat chairperson Monika Yadav and other leaders were also inducted into BJP. Leaders of opposition parties were also inducted into the BJP in big numbers in various districts too.
In 2017, the SP did not win a single municipal corporation and this time it is desperate to register its presence in the municipal corporation. SP president Akhilesh Yadav started his election campaign in the last round of the first phase. He campaigned through Metro rail, road shows and meetings in support of SP candidates in Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Saharanpur municipal corporations. Most of the SP candidates are contesting elections on their own though some SP state leaders have gone to campaign in some seats.
BSP supremo Mayawati stayed away from the election campaign. The BSP has fielded candidates in all 10 municipal corporations in the first phase. The candidates of BSP are contesting elections only with the coordination of regional coordinators.
