UP Civic Polls 2017 Results Live Updates: Historic win, says Yogi, taunts Rahul; PM Modi says vikas has won

The Bharatiya Janata Party is heading towards a registering major victories in the Uttar Pradesh civic elections. Party leaders have already begun celebrating the results.

 

IndiaToday.in  | Edited by Ashna Kumar and Dev Goswami
New Delhi, December 1, 2017 | UPDATED 16:24 IST
UP CM Yogi Adityanath, PM Modi and Rajnath Singh. Photo: PTIUP CM Yogi Adityanath with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Photo: PTI

The Bharatiya Janata Party looks set to register a resounding win in the Uttar Pradesh civic body elections, the results of which are being announced today.

The party, in power both in UP and at the Centre, has won a number of mayor's posts and has won the nigar nigam polls in Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency Amethi, the latter coming as a psychological victory.

The election results today come in the Yogi Adityanath's biggest electoral test since coming to power earlier this year. The mammoth election process that saw 652 local bodies go to poll in three phases, on November 22, 26 and 29.

The overall voter turnout was 52.4 per cent, an improvement of over six per cent points over the previous civic body polls. Over 3.36 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise at 36,269 polling booths.

The ruling BJP left no stone unturned to ensure victory in all 652 urban local bodies across the state, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath picking the baton himself and campaigning rigorously in 16 cities.

Adityanath kickstarted the campaign for civic polls from Ayodhya, where he sought to convince the electorate that a win for the BJP would ensure holistic development.

RELATED LIVE COVERAGE: COUNTING IN AGRA | MEERUT | JHANSI | GORAKHPUR | GHAZIABAD | SAHARANPUR | MATHURA | BAREILLY | KANPUR | LUCKNOW

Uttar Pradesh civic body election 2017 results LIVE UPDATES:

  • Underlining the importance of the UP civic polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted saying, "Vikas has won once again in the country." The Prime Minister thanked the voters of UP and congratulated CM Adityanath and other party workers, adding that the win will inspire the BJP to work even harder.
  • Latest update at 3.30 pm: BJP has won mayoral polls in at least six place: Agra, Mathura, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Varansi, and Bareilly. BSP has won one Mayor's post, in Aligarh.
  • Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party have begun celebrating the party's wins and leads in Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath attacked Rahul Gandhi directly. "Rahul Gandhi could not save his seat in Amethi, I believe he should rethink his future in politics," Adityanath said.
  • In Aligarh, BSP candidate Mohammad Furkan has defeated BJP's Rajiv Agrawal by 11,990 votes to claim the mayoral seat.
  • Agra too will get a BJP mayor with Naveen Jain winning the mayoral poll there by 15,000 votes.
  • Commenting on the trends in the Uttar Pradesh local body polls, Union Finance Arun Jaitley said the results show that the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax has made life easier in India. "The whole country is a single market now," Jaitley said.
  • Counting in Firozabad mayor, which saw the BSP take a huge lead early in the morning before it was overtaken by the BJP, has unusually reached 19 rounds. The BJP candidate there is currently leading by around 56,000 votes.
  • Speaking to India Today, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy repeated his comments from earlier in the day that his party was winning on the bank of a the "temple wave". "BJP has won in UP as people think Ram Temple will soon become a reality... it's the temple wave BJP is riding on," Swamy said.
  • BJP candidate Hrishikesh Upadhyay has won the mayor seat in Ayodhya. A BJP candidate has also won in the Deoria Nagar Palika election has won the seat, with the SP coming in second.
  • And, it's a lucky draw in Mathura! In the city's ward number 56, both the BJP and Congress candidates polled 874 votes each. The Election Commission then held a lucky draw, which was won by BJP's Meera Agarwal. Watch the lucky draw being conducted (via ANI/Twitter):
  • The BJP has a heavy lead in the Moradabad mayoral poll. The party is ahead of the SP, which is in the second place, by almost 30,000 votes. 
  • Congress, which has failed to registered big gains in early counting, briefly took the lead in Mathura, but lost it within minutes to the BJP candidate there. 
  • Latest update at 10.15 am: BJP leading in Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Firozabad, Jhansi, Varanasi, Mathura, Allahabad. The BSP is leading in Agra and Meerut.
  • The Bahujan Samaj Party has taken a massive lead in Firozabad. Early trends have the party leading by over 5,000 votes. BJP with around 1,500 votes is a distant second while Congress and SP have less than 500 votes.

    A UP civic election counting centre in Ghaziabad (Photo: Twitter/@AninBanerjeeeee)

  • Meanwhile, all of the 652 civic areas will be under prohibition for the day as counting progresses in UP's local elections. 
  • Counting of votes polled for 16 nagar nigams (municipal corporation), 198 nagar palika parishads (municipal council) and 438 nagar panchayats has begun. All the results are expected to be declared in seven hours.
  • As many as 79,113 candidates are in fray today.
  • Lucknow will get its first woman mayor today after 100 years. This time, the Lucknow mayoral seat has been reserved for women, hence all parties fielded women candidates. (READ COMPLETE REPORT)
  • For the first time in the civic polls in UP, the winners will get an SMS informing them about their victory on their seat.

BJP WIN IS A WIN-WIN FOR ALL

In an exclusive interview with India Today, UP CM Adityanath had elucidated the benefits of BJP winning seats of mayor, corporator and municipal council chairmans.

"Funds allocated for city development will be used judiciously and there will be no friction between the mayors and corporators. If the entire municipal board is formed of BJP supporters, the development will be on a fast-track," Chief Minister had said.

Incidentally, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's bastion Gorakhpur recorded a dull 39.23 per cent turnout, among the lowest this poll season. Whereas, Congress' home turf Amethi registered a high 68.44 per cent polling.

The civic body elections are being seen as a referendum on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh. The results of the civic body polls also come at a time when the BJP and the Congress are locked in a tough battle in Gujarat (which votes in a new assembly later this month).

WHY THE BIG ONUS?

Though the BJP has traditionally been strong in the urban constituencies, the acid test for Adityanath is to match up to the saffron party's show in the Assembly polls.

The civic body polls hold equal importance for other parties including the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which are hoping for a comeback after their drubbing in the Assembly elections early this year.

Even Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will hope to make inroads of dominance today with their maiden attempt to puncture BJP's hegemony in the state.

Also watch: Yogi Adityanath invokes Ram rajya in Ayodhya, says will work for UP's development