Ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections to be held in early 2022, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a major setback in the panchayat elections the counting of which concluded on Tuesday.
Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) won a comprehensive victory in Varanasi and Ayodhya, while Mayawati’s BSP and Ajit Singh’s RLD topped in Mathura, three districts that are important to the BJP agenda. There has been a special focus on these three districts during the Yogi Government’s four-year tenure.
“The results of the panchayat elections are a setback for the BJP Government,” a senior BJP leader said requesting anonymity.
The election of district panchayat is important because they elect the chairman of the district panchayat. These members are also part of the Electoral College that elects the member of the UP Legislative council, the Upper House of the UP Legislature.
As many 36 members are elected to UP Legislative council from the local body constituency of the Upper House. The Upper House has strength of 100 members and its other members are elected from the Assembly constituency and teacher’s constituency.
Out of total seats of 3,050 member district panchayat in 75 districts, the BJP has won 768 seats, the Samajwadi party won 759, the BSP 319, the Congress 125, the Rashtriya Lok Dal 69, and Independents won 1,071 seats.
Many of the Independents include rebel candidate of the BJP and the SP.
In Varanasi, out of the total 40 seats of member district panchayat, the BJP could win only eight seats while the SP won 14 seats. In other eastern UP districts, Sonbhadra, Ballia, Mau, Azamgarh, Basti, Mirzapur, Bhadoi and Chanduli, the BJP trailed its opponents SP.
In Ayodhya district, the BJP suffered crushing defeat as it could win only six out of 40 seats while SP won 24 seats. The BSP won 5 seats. In Mathura with 33 seats, the BJP faced an embarrassing defeat as Mayawati’s BSP won 12 seats and Chaudhary Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal won nine seats, the BJP won eight seats. At the same time, the SP opened its account with just one seat. The Congress failed to win any seat, while 4 Independents won.
Gorakhpur, the hometown of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath out of the 68 seats of member zila panchayat, the BJP won 20 seats, the SP 19, while 21 Independents have won.
There were over 12.89 Lakh candidates were in the fray for the post of village pradhan, member village panchayat, and member block development committee and member district panchayat. Over 12 crore voters were eligible to vote in panchayat elections and average turnout was close to 75 per cent in the elections held in four phases.
