A day after the cabinet reshuffle for revitalizing the party ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, the ruling Samajadi Party suffered serious setback as party candidates lost election in its home turf in Etawah district and the relatives of the several ministers and senior party leaders were defeated. The Congress suffered crushing defeat by losing all nine seats of member district panchayat in its bastion Amethi represented in lok Sabha by its vice President Rahul Gandhi. Congress lost all the eights seats of member district panchayat.
The BJP also lost in Jayapur village adopted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his lok Sabha constituency Varanasi. Of the total 47 BJP supported candidates for member Kshetra panchayat in Varanasi only 8 won. The BJP also lost in Benti village adopted by the lucknow MP and Union home minister Rajnath Singh. Asaduddin Owasi led Majlis-e-Ittehedul Musalmeen opened its account in Azamgarh and Muzaffarnagar as its supported candidates won the seats of member district panchayat.
Even after 35 hours of counting of votes was still underway and is likely to be finalized by late hours of Monday. The State election commission said out of the total seats of 3,112 members of district panchayat results of less than half or 1,280 seats have so far been declared. For the Kshetra panchayat or block development committee member, out of total 77, 5766 seats results of 74,876 seats have been declared.
The Samajwadi party lost all the seats of member Kshetra panchayat in Takha and Chakarnagar block of Etawah district. The SP candidates for the member district panchayat also suffered defeat in both the blocks. The BJP candidates won from both the blocks. The SP however managed to save its fort in other blocks like Jaswant Nagar, Bharthana, Badpura and Basehar.
Totaram Yadav, whose video of booth capturing went viral on social media, has lost the election of member of Kshetra Panchayat from the Bewar block of Mainpuri district—the home turn of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav-four time MP from Mainpuri lok Sabha seat. On the orders of the SEC FIR was lodged against Totaram Yadav and 15 others including policemen on duty.
The MIM opened its account in Azamgarh, the stronghold of the local MP and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The MIM candidate Kailash Kumar gautam won the election of member district panchayat from ward no 39 of Azamgarh. Netrapal Boudh of MIM also won for member district panchayat from ward No 12 of Muzaffarnagar district. In Azamgarh the daughter in law of the SP MlA Abhay Naryan Patel lost the election.
Virendra Yadav son of the panchayatraj minister Kailash Yadav lost the election of member district panchayat from Ghazipur district. In Sitapur district two daughters of the minister of state Rampal Rajvanshi lost the election of member district panchayat. Husband of the president of Samajwadi party mahila Sabha also lost the election in Sitapur. In same district Firoz Kaiser, brother of district president of the SP won the election of member district panchayat. In Meerut, Nawazish Manzor, son of the labour minister Shahid Manzor won the election of member kshetra panchayat by 800 votes. Allegation of fake voting were leveled against Nawazish Manzor during the polling.
In Fatehpur Neetu Singh wife of the SP district president Surendra Yadav won the election of member kshetra panchayat while two daughters in laws of the senior SP leader late Mitresen yadav won the election of member district panchayat. Both wife and son of the minister Mahboob Ali won the election of member district panchayat from Amroha district. In Jalaun district Jaibhan Singh, son of the BJP MP, Bhanupratap lost the election.
Many family members of other ministers in the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet contested the polls but had to bit the dust. Family members of ministers like Manoj Kumar Pandey in Raibareli, Shiv Pratap Yadav in Balrampur, Shankhlal Manjhi in Ambedkar Nagar and minister rank Samajwadi Party leader Vidyawati lost the election. The Samajwadi Party has also faced jolt in Farukkhabad.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said: “The polls results are an indicator that the people of the state, specially in the villages, have decided to bid good bye to the corrupt and inefficient Samajwadi Party government.”