With a spectacular victory in Urban local Bodies elections, the BJP in less than four years has earned the third successive victory in Uttar Pradesh resulting in the decimation of its major rivals - Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.
The UlB poll results were particularly embarrassing for the Congress as ahead of the coronation of Rahul Gandhi as party president, the grand old party lost the election of chairman of Amethi nagar panchayat and BJP candidate Chandrma Devi triumphed. Rahul Gandhi is the Congress MP from Amethi.
The election results were no better for Samajwadi Party as well. Faced with bickerings within the SP’s first family, the party faced massive humiliation on Friday when its official candidate lost to rebel candidate in the pcoket burrough of Jaswantnagar nagar palika parishad chairman’s post in Etawah.
Independent candidate Sunil Jolly, a staunch supporter of Akhilesh’s estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, romped home by 553 votes against SP candidate Satyanaryan.
Jaswantnagar legislator Shivpal Singh Yadav had campaigned for the rebel candidate. Saifai, the native village of Yadav family, comes under Jaswantnagar nagar palika parishad. However, SP’s official candidate Hakim Singh won Bharthana municipal council chairman’s seat in Etawah.
The downward spiral continued for Samajwadi Party as it has completely been routed in the state and failed to win in any of the 16 municipal corporations. Wiped out completely from urban centers, the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP has its task cut out if it was serious about remaining a potent force in the state.
The SP won 39 seats of chairman of nagar palika panchyat and 80 seats of chairman of nagar panchyats. After the bitter feud with the SP’s first family, the SP has fought two major elections and lost both by huge margins.
On the other hand, there was some good news for Mayawati-led BSP which managed to register a better performance than the 2014 lok Sabha elections and 2017 Assembly poll.
While the BSP ended a poor third, winning just 19 seats in Assembly elections in March this year, the party showed stomach to fight it out with the marauding BJP.
The BSP wrested Mayoral seats in Aligarh and Meerut from the BJP. The latter had won both seats in 2014 lok Sabha poll and later won all Assembly seats in Aligarh and six of the seven Assembly seats in Meerut.
Congress, the grand old party of India, has hurtled towards yet another disaster in the state. Out of power in the state since 1989, Congress has been clearly reduced to a non-entity in statepolitics.
Even though Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi are lok Sabha MPs from the state, the party has failed to win a significant number of wards in Nagar Panchayats and Nagar Palikas. The civic elections loss will rankle the Congress brass as it comes just ahead of Gujarat Assembly elections where the party is hoping to give the BJP a run for its money.
Meanwhile the Hyderabad based All India Majlis Ittehadul Musalmeen (AIMIM) opened its account by bagging one seat of chairman of nagar panchyat and 12 posts of corporators in Meerut and Kanpur nagar nigams. AIMIM candidate Sharad Kumar Sonkar won from Chunniganj seat of Kanpur Nagar Nigam.