Counting of votes polled in the urban local body elections sprung a surprise as by late evening independent candidates had won on more seats of councillors/ward members than candidates of the two national parties combined.

Till the time of this report being filed, results had been officially declared for 795 seats of councillors/ ward-members out of total 1064 seats.

Independent candidates had won on 450 seats, while the BJP candidates had won on 212 seats followed by Congress candidates who had won on 128 seats.

The Aam Aadmi Party candidates had won on two seats with Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party candidates winning one seat each according to the results officially declared by the State Election Commission. Similarly, the trends at the time also showed the independent candidates leading on 54 seats followed by BJP candidates leading on 38 seats, Congress candidates on 20 seats and BSP candidate on one seat.

When it comes to the seats of mayors and municipal council/Nagar Panchayat chairpersons, out of the total 84 seats, the SEC had declared results for 66 seats till the time of this report being filed.

Of these, the BJP candidates had won on 27 seats followed by independent candidates who had won on 20 seats and Congress candidates who had won on 19 seats.

According to the trends at the time, both the BJP and Congress were leading on six seats each with independent and BSP leading on one seat each.

While the BJP cited the performance of the independent candidates as a sign of the voters rejecting the Congress, the Congress cited the same fact to substantiate its claim of the the BJP performing poorly in the local body elections.

 Observers opined that the voters preferred to vote for independent candidates contesting for posts of councillors/ward-members based on their familiarity and image instead of favouring a party candidate.