In a first, UP local polls get national-level campaigns
LUCKNOW: Urban local bodies’ polls in Uttar Pradesh — the biggest state in the country politically — are being contested on national issues this time instead of local problems like ‘naali, sadak, paani’ (sewage, roads and drinking water supply).
The first phase of polling will be held on Wednesday.
The state has 16 nagar nigams (municipal corporations), 199 nagar palika parishads (municipalities), and 428 nagar panchayats (city councils) that include a total of 11,995 civic wards.
All major parties are contesting all the 16 mayoral seats.
State-level leaders of all parties are campaigning across the state this time around making it the most fiercely contested civic election ever in the country.
In a first, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has taken up the role of party’s chief campaigner and will be addressing as many as 35 rallies. He launched the campaign from Ayodhya.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh are also campaigning for the BJP.
Though SP president Akhilesh Yadav is not holding rallies, he is attacking the state’s BJP government in press conferences.
Mayawati too is not campaigning but all her top leaders are. Congress state president Raj Babbar is holding road shows across the state. The party’s list of star campaigners includes Congress working committee member Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitendra Prasada, Deepender Singh Hooda, former union minister Salman Khurshid, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat.
Political analyst and former head of the department of political science, Lucknow University, SK Dwivedi is critical. “...I do not see it as a good trend for democracy. Our democratic system has always remained three-tiered – national, state and local,” he said.