BJP’s Ganesh Kesarwani wins mayoral seat of Prayagraj

Prayagraj: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has dominated the results of mayoral seats in the state, has won it in the Sangam city for the second time in a row.
In the results of urban local body elections announced on Saturday, BJP candidate Umesh Chandra Ganesh Kesarwani registered an emphatic win over his nearest rival Ajay Kumar Srivastava of Samajwadi Party, by defeating the latter by a margin of 1,29,289 votes.
Kesarwani, who was leading right from the first round of counting at the Mundera Mandi campus, secured 2,35,675 votes as compared to 1,06, 289 votes polled by Srivastava.
Prabha Shankar Mishra of the Congress was a distant third with 40,486 votes while Bahujan Samaj Party’s Saeed Ahmad came fourth with 36,799 votes among a total of 21 candidates who were in the fray for the mayoral post of Prayagraj this time.
Mohamad Naki Khan of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) secured 24,023 votes to come fifth while Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Mohd Qadir stood sixth with 14,253 votes. A total of 2,060 votes were polled under NOTA or none of the above options in the mayoral polls this time, informed district election office, Prayagraj.
In 2017, the then BJP candidate Abhilash Gupta ‘Nandi’ had retained the seat after defeating Vinod Chandra Dubey of SP by a margin of 63,384 votes. Kesarwani has termed this victory as that of the people of Sangam city and hardworking party workers of BJP. “I would like to express my gratitude and acknowledge the blessings of senior BJP leaders, including PM Narendra Modi, CM Yogi Adityanath, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and others that has made this win possible. For me this is a great honour to serve the people of my beloved city,” he said.
After Nagar Nigam was set up, Sangam City had witnessed its first ever mayoral elections in 1995 as before that Prayagraj (then Allahabad) was a nagar Mahapalika and had a Nagar Pramukh who was elected by the people’s elected municipal corporators.
In 1995, the seat was reserved for women candidates and Prof Rita Bahuguna Joshi (then in Congress) had got elected as the first Mayor of Sangam city to be elected directly by the people. In 2000, KP Srivastava of Samajwadi Party and in 2006 Ch Jitendra Nath Singh of Congress were elected as the first citizens of the city.
However, in 2012, the seat again got reserved for women and Abhilasha Gupta Nandi, wife of cabinet Minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, had emerged as winner in the mayoral polls as an Independent. In 2017, despite being declared unreserved, Abhilasha Gupta got re-elected to the post as a BJP candidate.