UP urban local body polls: BJP leading on 3 mayoral seats, including Lucknow

Lucknow: The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh has established leads on three mayoral seats -- Lucknow, Mathura and Bareilly -- in the state, according to data provide by district administrations.

BJP's Sushma Kharakwal is ahead of Samajwadi Party's Vandana Mishra by 530 votes in Lucknow.

In Mathura, Vinod Agarwal of the BJP is leading by 11,381 votes over Bahujan Samaj Party's Raja Mohatsim Ahmed after two rounds, while in Bareilly, BJP's Umesh Gautam is leading over Independent candidate Iqbal Singh Tomar by over 4,200 votes after the first round.

Besides elections to 17 posts of mayor, voting was also held to elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of nagar palika parishads, 542 chairpersons of nagar panchayats and 7,104 members of nagar panchayats in the urban local bodies' polls in the state on May 4 and 11.

Voting has also been held to elect 1,401 corporators. As many as 19 corporators were elected unopposed.

Shahjahanpur has voted to elect its first mayor. Meerut and Aligarh had Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) mayors in 2017, while the BJP ruled the rest.

In all, 162 public representatives were elected unopposed, while there were as many as 83,378 candidates in the poll fray for 14,522 posts.

In the urban local bodies' elections, 53 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the second phase covering 38 districts on May 11, while the voter turnout in the first phase on May 4 was 52 per cent covering 37 districts of the state.

According to the State Election Commission, 4.32 crore were eligible to cast their vote in the urban local bodies' polls. In 2017, the polls were held in three phases, and the overall polling percentage was 53 per cent.