Though officially the panchayat elections were fought without party affiliation, the candidates were generally members of political parties. As a result the entire elections were contested on party lines
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — In what has come as a major surprise, the Samajwadi Party is doing better than the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the panchayat elections of Uttar Pradesh as the counting, which began on May 2, is still underway.
Reports said that the party, in opposition in the assembly, is leading on more than 747 zila panchayat wards followed by BJP at 690 seats.
SP candidates are ahead of those backed by BJP in Hapur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bareilly, Etah, Firozabad. The party is giving a tough fight to BJP in districts like Pilibhit, Kasganj, Amroha, Rampur, Meerut, Aligarh, etc.
The elections, besides going to decide who gets power at the grassroot level, also gives an indication of what is in store for the 2022 state assembly elections. Though officially the panchayat elections were fought without party affiliation, the candidates were generally members of political parties. As a result the entire elections were contested on party lines.
If local reports are to be believed the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP did not put all its energies to the panchayat elections, yet it seems to be emerging as a clear winner. On the other hand, Chief Minister Yogi Adiytyanath led his BJP to fight the polls using men and muscle and going door to door to the remotest of villages. Still it failed to meet its own expectations.
As the elections drew closer, the mood of the people in the state swayed away and the likely reason is believed to be the failure of the government to tackle the Covid crisis — the second wave of the virus— that has devastated the country with UP as one of the worst hit and the health system collapsed. This has triggered a massive anger against the BJP’s top brass including the prime minister and the state chief minister.
On the other hand the dormant Samajwadi Party is making most of it; they have sweeped the Ayodhya and Prayagraj, BJP’s stronghold area. The SP is putting up a tough show in Gorakhpur, Yogi’s home turf, and Varanasi, which is represented in Parliament by PM Modi.
Similarly, the performance of Akhilesh Yadav’s party appears to be consolidating the lost ground in its traditional support bases — Etawah, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Azamgarh and Etah.
Stitching alliance with his uncle Shivpal Yadav who is founder of Pragatisheel Samajwadi in Etawah seems to have proven fruitful for Akhilesh.
Ayodhya has been a shocker for BJP, given that last year Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation of the Ram Temple here following the Supreme Court’s controversial verdict.
The Hindutva plank has not yielded the desired results for now. India Today cited Samajwadi Party claiming that candidates backed by the party have won 24 seats out of 40 zila panchayat seats in Ayodhya, while the BJP could only bag six. But the BJP claims that its situation is not as grim as it looks.
The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samajwadi Party is ahead on 12 seats, RLD has managed victory on eight and BJP on nine. In Lucknow, the state capital, SP is ahead on eight Zila panchayat seats while BJP on just three.
