Lion’s share for BSP, SP-backed candidates

PANCHAYAT POLLS BJP fares badly in Lucknow and Kashi, Cong in Amethi and Rae Bareli; Owaisi’s AIMIM makes dent in Azamgarh

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)backed candidates bagged the lion’s share in the zila and the kshetra panchayat ward (member) elections, most results of which were declared on Monday.

The panchayat polls, which saw most BJP-backed candidates being decimated, are being seen as a semi-final to the 2017 assembly elections.

The results also threw up some surprises. While Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM made a dent in SP stronghold and party chief Mulayam Singh’s Yadav’s constituency Azamgarh, BJP-supported candidates fared badly in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi.

AIMIM supported candidate Kailash Gautam won from Maqsudia zila panchayat ward with around 600 votes defeating BJP-supported candidate Phool Gautam. The BJP-backed candidates won around 20 wards out of 58 in home minister Rajnath Singh’s constituency Lucknow and just about a dozen out of 56 seats in Union minister Kalraj Mishra’s constituency Deoria in the zila panchayat polls.

Meanwhile, many family members and relatives of SP MLAs, MPs and ministers lost the elections whereas the BSP, which had drawn a blank in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, has done well at many places. Congress-supported candidates lost the polls in Rahul Gandhi’s constituency Amethi and Sonia Gandhi constituency Rae Bareli. Among the losers was Totaram Yadav, a SP leader and chairman of a government-owned corporation.

He was in the news recently when Mainpuri police had lodged an FIR against him and his supporters for capturing a booth during the polls.

As a stream of discouraging results poured in, BJP leaders conceded the results announced so far indicated the party had a lot of ground to cover to have a shot at power in Uttar Pradesh in two years. BJP state incharge Om Mathur has, meanwhile, convened a meeting in Lucknow on November 3 to discuss the results. But the party has already accused the SP of misusing official machinery to influence the polls.

Claiming the party’s victory in the elections, SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said the panchayat poll results had given broad indications about outcome of the 2017 assembly elections. He said SP-supported candidates’ win in the BJP and Congress strongholds proved that the people had full faith in chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his government’s policies.

The panchayat elections were not contested on party lines but political parties backed a large number of about four lakh candidates who contested for 3,112 zila panchayat and 77,576 kshetra panchayat members’ posts. While most of the results of the kshetra panchayat polls had been declared, only about 40% results of zila panchayat elections could be declared till last reports came in. A state election commission official said: “At least 60% of the results of the zila panchayat ward elections were yet to be declared.”