The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh is facing an unenviable task to retain all the 10 corporations like it did in 2017 polls in the first phase of civic polling in the state to be held on Thursday.
On the other hand, there is a challenge before the principal Opposition party, Samajwadi Party, and on the other, the BSP and the Congress have put up a good fight against the BJP as the urban local bodies’ polls are considered a rehearsal for the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.
Political experts believe that the impact of the results of the civic elections will remain till the Lok Sabha elections.
There is a direct contest between the BJP and the SP in most of the constituencies in the civic elections, while at some places the candidates of the BSP and the Congress were turning it into a triangular contest.
In the 2017 civic elections, out of a total of 16 municipal corporations, except Aligarh and Meerut municipal corporations which were won by BSP, the ruling BJP had won all the municipal corporations. This time around, elections are being held for the first time in Shahjahanpur Corporation in the municipal elections.
This time, the BJP has fielded around 400 Muslim candidates in the civic polls, but none for the mayor’s post. Similarly, the BSP has fielded eight Muslim mayoral candidates out of the 10 in the first phase.
In the first phase elections will be held on May 4 in Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Mathura-Vrindavan and Firozabad Municipal Corporation. The BJP has re-nominated the outgoing mayor Vinod Agarwal in Moradabad while new faces have been given a chance in the remaining Mayors seat.
The BJP Government and the organisation have also exerted their full might in these elections. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had visited 21 districts from April 24 to May 2 where poling is schedule in the first phase. Election meetings have been held in all the ten municipal corporations of the first phase. The CM has held two to three rallies in Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak have also sought votes in support of party candidates by visiting most of the districts. BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chowdhary also visited two to three districts every day.
The BJP also started the process of getting SP, Congress and BSP leaders to join the party to win the civic elections. Rahis Chandra Shukla, who was the SP candidate in the Prayagraj assembly elections, was inducted into the party. Former state secretary of SP Munna Tripathi, veteran leader of SP in Farrukhabad Narendra Singh Yadav, his daughter district panchayat president Monika Yadav and other leaders were also included in BJP. Leaders of opposition parties in big numbers were inducted into the BJP even in various districts too.
In 2017, the SP did not win a single municipal corporation, but in these elections there is a chance for SP to secure its existence in the municipal corporation. SP President Akhilesh Yadav started his election campaign in the last round of the first phase. He campaigned through metro rail, road show and meeting in support of SP candidates in Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Saharanpur Municipal Corporation. Most of the SP candidates are contesting elections on their own though some SP state leaders have gone on campaign in some seats.
BSP supremo Mayawati has kept distance from the election campaign. Mayawati has fielded candidates in all 10 municipal corporations in the first phase but she did not campaign in support of any candidate. The candidates of BSP are contesting elections only with the coordination of regional coordinators.