Uttar Pradesh: Four more BJP-backed candidates win Zila Panchayat chairman polls

LUCKNOW: In what furthered up its political victory over rivals, four more BJP-supported candidates got a walkover in Zila Panchayat (ZP) chairman elections after opposition- backed candidates withdrew their nomination on Tuesday. The four districts where opposition supported candidates took back their nomination are Saharanpur, Bahraich, Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur.
With this a total of 21 saffron party supported candidates have got elected as ZP chairperson, unopposed, in what marked BJP's key electoral victory in the run-up to UP assembly polls due next year. The other 17 districts where the BJP supported candidates got elected unopposed included: Chitrakoot, Agra, GB nagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Moradabad, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Banda, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Mau and Varanasi. In Etawah, SP-supported candidate and party chief Akhilesh Yadav's cousin Anshul Yadav won unopposed as BJP did not field a candidate.
The unopposed election of 21 BJP-supported candidates comes amid allegations of opposition, mainly Samajwadi Party, accusing the ruling party of rigging and orchestrating withdrawal of nomination by opposition-backed candidates for political gains. There will be an electoral contest for the ZP chairman seat in the rest 53 districts. Polling and counting of votes in these districts will be held on July 3 between 11 am and 3 pm, said state election commissioner, Manoj Kumar. The direct contest between the BJP and opposition-backed candidates will be in 38 districts including Ayodhya and Mathura, the nerve centres of Hindutva politics.
In Bahraich, SP-supported Neha Ajiz withdrew her nomination making way for BJP's Manju Singh. Things took an interesting twist in Shahjahanpur where SP-supported candidate Beenu Singh walked into saffron camp, allowing BJP's Mamta Yadav to get elected unopposed.
In Pilibhit, SP candidate Swami Pravaktanand took back his nomination allowing BJP- supported Baljeet Kaur to win. Pravaktanand was primarily a BJP-backed candidate who won Zila Panchayat ward elections. He, however, walked into SP fold after the BJP did not support him in the ZP chairman election. On Tuesday, the BJP managed to convince him and he withdrew his nomination.
In Saharanpur, BJP-backed Mange Ram Chaudhary got a walkover after BSP-supported Jaiveer alias Johnny withdrew his nomination papers. The development came a day after BSP supremo Mayawati announced that her party would not support any candidates in ZP chairperson elections. The former UP CM had cited rigging as the key reason for staying away from the rural local bodies chairperson elections.