UP civic polls: Counting underway, Test for Yogi govt.

TIL Desk/National/UP/ The counting of the three-phase municipal elections or 652 urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh is underway. The result of this election will be seen as a referendum on Yogi Adityanath governments performance in the last seven months.

The elections was conducted in three phases on November 22, 26 and 29 and the voter turnout was around 52.4 per cent. Over 3.36 crore voters exercised their rights at 36,269 polling booths in the state to decide the fate of 79,113 candidates. In the last municipal elections in 2012, the BJP had won by a landslide, bagging 10 out of 12 mayoral positions.

The current Deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Dinesh Sharma was elected as the Lucknow mayor. However this time, the city will get a woman mayor as the Lucknow mayoral seat has been reserved for women. BJP mayor candidates leading in Meerut, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Gorakhpur. The overall percentage recorded an improvement from 46.2 per cent in 2012 to 52.5 per cent this time.

The elections have generated a lot of political heat with the ruling BJP leaving nothing to chance. Opposition SP, BSP and Congress campaigns were on comparatively low key. Both SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati did not campaign for their candidates.