News Brief
Not Even Second: Why The UP Urban Body Poll Results Should Be A Cause Of Worry For The SP
Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party Chief
The results of the hotly contested Uttar Pradesh Urban Local Body (ULBs) elections were announced on Saturday (13 May).
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) surpassed its previous record of 14 to win all 17 mayoral seats in the state.
BJP’s ally Apna Dal also secured the Swar (Rampur) and Chhanbe (Sonbhadra) assembly seats in the by-elections held along with elections for 760 ULBs — including 17 municipal corporations, 199 nagar palika parishad and 544 nagar panchayats.
Notably, the Swar seat was held by Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam.
Out of the 199 nagar palika parishads, the BJP bagged 105 seats, followed by the Samajwadi Party (26), the Bahujan Samaj Party (16), and others (52).
Out of the 544 nagar panchayat seats, the BJP won 205 seats, followed by SP (126), BSP (47), Congress (40), and others (126).
While the results would act as a boost to the BJP before the upcoming general elections in 2024, they are a worrying sign for the SP.
The results of the ULB polls seem to indicate that it is losing its core minority vote bank to other opposition parties.
The Samajwadi Party — considered the principal opposition party in the state — lost the second position in many mayoral contests in the state to the BSP and Congress.
While BSP stood second in districts like Ghaziabad, Agra, Mathura and Saharanpur, Congress was able to arrive behind the BJP in Moradabad, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur.
Even Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was able to stand second in the Meerut mayoral seat.
Meanwhile, in Muslim-dominated Saharanpur, BSP and Congress stood second and third respectively, indicating a possible movement of the urban minority vote away from the SP.
The minority vote bank polarised massively in favour of the SP during the 2022 assembly elections, helping it put up its best performance in terms of vote share.
However, the minority vote has been seemingly moving away from the SP since then, underlined by the loss of its two bastions — Rampur and Azamgarh — during by-polls in 2022.
Notably, the BSP fielded 11 Muslim candidates on the 17 mayoral seats, a historic high for the party.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav has been holding out on joining any opposition front.
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