E-Paper
BJP’s win in block pramukh elections shows people’s preference, says Yogi Adityanath
Saturday’s big win came just a week after the BJP dominated the district panchayat chairpersons’ polls, winning 67 of the 75 seats
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday claimed a decisive victory in the violence-hit block pramukh elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced that on the basis of trends, leads and results, the BJP, along with its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), won at least 635 of the 825 block pramukh or kshetra panchayat chief’s posts for which elections were held across the state.
Saturday’s big win came just a week after the BJP dominated the zila (district) panchayat chairpersons’ polls, winning 67 [including one win by its ally Apna Dal (S)] of the 75 seats.
The party had won 349 of block pramukh posts unopposed by the close of the nomination withdrawal time on Friday itself. Election in the Mujhena block in Gonda district was not held as the term of the block pramukh has not been completed there.
Adityanath, along with UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev, arrived at the party office in Lucknow on Saturday evening to greet cadres.
Adityanath described the win as “janta ka rujhaan (people’s preference). The state BJP chief said the victory had now set up the 2022 UP assembly polls nicely for the party.
The chief minister said villages were at the centre of all development in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agenda and the blueprint was now ready. “These rural polls were the biggest test of democracy and the win shows that the people have incredible and unshakeable belief in BJP and its policies,” he said.
Adityanath also said that in 76 seats, BJP cadres were engaged in “friendly contests” in these block pramukh polls where both contestants were from the ruling party.
“Besides, we left 14 seats for our ally Apna Dal (S),” he said, adding that the whole process was carried out in a transparent manner.
“The official results are yet to come in but it’s very clear that BJP has found favour with the (rural) masses in a big way,” Adityanath said at a press conference at the party office. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev said the results were an indication that the BJP cadres would accept the 2022 UP poll challenge too.
“Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the BJP would sweep the 2022 UP assembly polls,” the state BJP chief said. On the other hand, the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) accused the ruling BJP of “hijacking democracy”. The SP has already announced statewide protests on July 15, according to a statement issued by the party on Friday.
Both Adityanath and Swatantra Dev didn’t take any questions at the party office. The BJP claimed a clean sweep in Agra, Ghaziabad, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Shravasti, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Pilibhit, Kannauj, Banda, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Sonbhadra and Varanasi districts.
The Apna Dal won nine of the 14 block pramukh seats that the BJP left for it, said Apna Dal spokesman Rajesh Patel.
The last of the rural elections were marked by visuals of BJP and Opposition members, mostly those from the Samajwadi Party, clashing at many places.
At places, the police fired tear gas shells as in Etawah, where a senior police officer was slapped and later named BJP cadres as responsible for the attack on him while in Hathras the Samajwadi Party workers were accused of pelting the police with stones.
At many other places, police had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse agitated party workers accusing the ruling party of misusing official machinery. From Muzaffarnagar to Ayodhya and Lucknow, the scene was no different as at all these places as the BJP and the SP engaged in claims and counterclaims.
Several senior politicians from the BJP, as well as Opposition, had fielded candidates or family members in these polls. For instance, former UP assembly speaker and Samajwadi Party leader Mata Prasad Pandey’s wife contested and won from Itwa block of Siddharthnagar from where state’s basic education minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi hails.
In Rae Bareli’s Unchahar, UP labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya’s daughter-in-law contested and won.
While the Congress couldn’t do well in its lone bastion Rae Bareli, in Pratapgarh’s Rampur Khaas assembly segment represented by party MLA Aradhana Misra ‘Mona’, the Congress managed to win three block pramukh seats. Piyush Singh, son of former Congress MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh, who is now in BJP and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls unsuccessfully against Sonia Gandhi, BJP’s Raebareli MLA Aditi Singh’s mother Vaishali also won these block pramukh polls. On paper, Aditi is still a Congress MLA.
The Samajwadi Party had won the first round, winning more seats than the BJP for the zila panchayat ward members’ poll. The win for the ruling party was accompanied by accusations and objectionable visuals of some male cadres’ physically stopping a woman candidate of the Samajwadi Party in Pasgawa block of Lakhimpur Kheri district.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has since suspended six local police officials on the issue. Some BJP members shared visuals showing armed supporters of opposition SP flexing muscles in Basti.
