BSP claims victory in UP panchayat polls

Candidates backed by Samajwadi Party have claimed victory in 25 seats with party district president Satish Fauji saying this time Zilla Panchayat will have an SP-backed president.

Officials with the state Election Commission told IANS that so far results of 35,000 regional panchayat wards have been declared, and of the 3,112 posts of district panchayat members, 19 results have been declared.

The results also showed that a large number of independents registered impressive wins in the regions which were considered to be the strongholds of the main political parties.

Also, in Jayapur, the village adopted by the PM under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), BJP-supported Arun Kumar Singh suffered defeat at the hands of BSP's Ramesh Tiwari alias Guddu Tiwari.

In a significant development, Owaisi's MIM won a seat in Azamgarh, the parliamentary constituency of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. In Azamgarh, the daughter in law of the SP MLA Abhay Naryan Patel lost the election.

Virendra Yadav son of the panchayatraj minister Kailash Yadav lost the election of member district panchayat from Ghazipur district.

Bajpai trained guns on the ruling Samajwadi Party accusing it of using unfair means, including "fielding candidates indirectly" and resorting to booth capturing, to hijack the election process. The panchayat elections were being seen as a semi-final to the 2017 assembly elections when the BJP is aiming to storm back into power after sweeping the state in the Lok Sabha polls a year ago. Both wife and son of the minister Mahboob Ali won the election of member district panchayat from Amroha district.

The state's ruling SP took the lead in rural local bodies across the state while the saffron party fared poorly even in high-profile constituencies, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi.

The results assume significance as they have come just about a year before the assembly elections.