Farmers Movement Archive

Uttar Pradesh: BJP, ally claim win on 648 out of 825 block pramukh seats

LUCKNOW: After sweeping the Zila Panchayat chairman elections, the BJP continued with its electoral juggernaut in the Block Pramukh polls as well on Saturday. While the state election commission did not demarcate the winners on the basis of their political affiliations, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (S) claimed to have won 648 out of 825 block chairperson seats. The development potentially armed the saffron party and its ally to claim their political presence in the rural swathes ahead of the high stake UP assembly elections due next year. According to reports, the BJP-supported candidates contested on 735 seats, while 14 seats were given to its ally Apna Dal (S). The party also gave an unannounced support to 76 candidates while agreeing not to field its officially supported candidates against them. As results trickled in, BJP and its ally AD (S)-supported candidates were poised to win 648 seats. The Samajwadi Party-backed candidates, according to reports, won in over 70 seats, while Congress-supported candidates managed a win on just two seats. The independents won on around 95 seats. The BJP put out details of its electoral victory late Saturday evening, claiming that the saffron party and its ally Apna Dal together won the maximum of 136 out of 173 blocks in Awadh region comprising 13 districts including Lucknow and Ayodhya. The BJP made a clean sweep in 12 districts -- Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Agra, Shravasti, GB Nagar, Pilibhit, Kannauj, Banda and Mahoba. The NDA partners, the BJP claimed, won 116 block chairman seats in Gorakhpur region -- the political backyard of CM Yogi Adityanath -- which comprises 147 blocks spread across over 10 districts. The allies also won 112 out of 129 block chairman seats in Braj region which comprises 12 districts including Mathura. So was the case with Kashi region, comprising 12 districts including Varanasi, the parliamentary seat of PM Narendra Modi. Here, the BJP and Apna Dal (S)-supported candidates won 109 out of 157 block chairman seats. The NDA also claimed to perform well in the west UP region comprising 14 districts, many of which were marked by farmers' protest. Here the party claimed that its backed candidates won 85 out of 109 block chairman seats. In the Kanpur region -- comprising 14 districts -- the NDA claimed to have won 90 out of 110 block chairman seats. On Friday, as many as 349 candidates were elected unopposed after 187 of them took back their nominations. Polling for the remaining 476 seats were conducted on Saturday. The BJP had on Friday claimed that 334 of its supported candidates won unopposed. The rural bodies’ elections had stoked a political contest after the BJP formally announced its candidates for Zila Panchayat as well as for the block-level elections. As a matter of fact, the elections for ZP chairman and block chairman remained restricted between the BJP and the SP even as BSP chief Mayawati walked out of the high-pitched poll battle citing irregularities and rigging. The Congress, too, largely remained out of the contest with the party not making any concerted efforts in supporting candidates and ensuring their win.

The Times of India

2021-07-11

Lucknow