The Bharatiya Janata Party managed to achieve a resounding victory in the urban local body elections in the state.
Its candidates were elected mayors in five of the seven municipal corporations with Congress candidates managing victory on two mayoral seats. BJP candidate Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ was elected mayor of provisional state capital Dehradun, defeating his nearest rival Dinesh Agrawal of the Congress by a margin of more than 35,000 votes.
Gama received 1,62,516 votes while Agrawal got 1,26,884. BJP candidates elected mayors of other cities include Rampal Singh in Rudrapur, Usha Chowdhry in Kashipur, Jogendra Pal Singh Rautela in Haldwani and Anita Mamgai in Riushikesh.
Apart from Gama, the victories of Rautela and Mamgai are considered especially significant as Rautela was up against Congress candidate Sumit Hridayesh who is also the son of leader of opposition and Haldwani MLA Indira Hridayesh while Mamgai has become the first elected mayor of Rishikesh.
Congress candidates Hemlata Negi and Anita Sharma were elected mayors of Kotdwar and Haridwar respectively.
Out of the total 83 seats of mayors and chaipersons of municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats, the BJP won 34, followed by Congress which won 25 seats, independents who won 23 seats and BSP which won one seat.
While the BJP performed better than its rivals when it comes to seats of mayors, chairpersons of municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats, independent candidates managed to win on the maximum number of seats of councillors and ward members.
Of the total 1063 seats of councillors, independent candidates won 551 seats followed by BJP with 323, Congress with 181, BSP with four, AAP with two and the UKD and Samajwadi Party with one seat each.
Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that if one considers past Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections, the independents have never won on more than a couple of seats.
However, independent candidates winning on more than 500 seats clearly shows that localised issues dominate elections to the post of councillors. Even then, as a political party the BJP has emerged victorious with maximum number of seats. In the previous local body elections, the BJP candidates were elected to 177 seats of councillors whereas this time this number has increased to 323. Considering this, the BJP has performed better than it did in the previous polls, said Rawat.