Special Correspondent
Mayoral polls results likely by early Tuesday
LUCKNOW: Independents surged ahead of the mainstream political parties as the results of the local bodies elections in Uttar Pradesh started trickling in at the State Electon Commission headquarters here on Monday. However, the opening results were for the Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats (town areas). The results of the mayoral and corporators’ polls for the 12 Nagar Nigams (municipal corporations) were yet to come in.
According to State Election Commission sources, the mayoral polls results were expected to be received only late on Monday night or early on Tuesday.
Of the 58 results of the Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats declared so far, the Independents had won 18 seats, followed by the ruling Samajwadi Party which had won 14, Bharatiya Janata Party 13 and the Congress five. The BS4 had won two seats.
The Bahujan Samaj Party had not contested the civic polls on its symbol but had supported many independent candidates who were in the fray.
The outcome of the seven Nagar Panchayat elections in Lucknow district presented a mixed bag. Here the Samajwadi Party candidates, Pawan Kumar Gupta and Asmat Aara Khan, won the Itaunja and Malihabad Nagar Panchayats.
The BJP’s Resham Devi and Madan Lal bagged Mahona and Gosainganj Nagar Panchayats and the BS4 candidates, Rajesh Rawat and Raj Kumari, won the Amethi (not to be confused with the parliamentary constituency of the same name) and Nagram town area seats.
The BSP-supported Independent, whose name was not known to the State Election Commission, triumphed in the Kakori Nagar Panchayat.
Joint Election Commissioner Pramod Chandra Gupta told newspersons that counting of votes for 35 out of the 110 municipal wards in Lucknow Nagar Nigam started in the evening . He said counting of votes for the remaining wards was likely to be taken up at night.
Lucknow witnessed a triangular contest between Madhu Gupta of the SP, Dinesh Sharma of the BJP and Manzoor Ahmed of the Congress.