The counting of votes for the 2023 Uttar Pradesh civic body polls was held on Saturday, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning all 17 mayoral positions that were at stake, and the polling for which was conducted on May 4 and 11.
The BJP, therefore, will have its mayors in Aligarh, Ayodhya, Bareilly, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mathura, Meerut, Moradabad, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Shahjahanpur, and Varanasi.
Here is a brief profile of winning BJP candidates from Ghaziabad, Jhansi, Kanpur, Saharanpur and Shahjahanpur:
Sunita Dayal (Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation)
Dayal continued the ‘tradition’ since 1995 of Ghaziabad electing a BJP mayor, and is also the seventh person from the party to hold the post. She defeated Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Nisara Khan.
A former member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP's youth wing, she has held various positions in the party. In 2004, Dayal unsuccessfully contested a byelection held to elect Ghaziabad MLA.
Win margin: 2,87,656 votes
Bihari Lal Arya (Jhansi Municipal Corporation)
Born on Jan 1, 1962, Arya is a former MLA from the Mauranipur constituency in the Jhansi district, winning the seat in the 2017 assembly election. In 2022, however, the party gave this seat to its ally, the Apna Dal, which won from here.
{{/usCountry}}Born on Jan 1, 1962, Arya is a former MLA from the Mauranipur constituency in the Jhansi district, winning the seat in the 2017 assembly election. In 2022, however, the party gave this seat to its ally, the Apna Dal, which won from here.
{{/usCountry}}A former Congress leader, he is an MA in political science. In becoming Jhansi's mayor, he defeated Congress's Arvind Kumar Bablu.
Win margin: 43,645 votes
Pramila Pandey (Kanpur Municipal Corporation)
As of this writing, the incumbent mayor of Kanpur is leading her nearest competitor, Samajwadi Party's (SP) Vandana Bajpai, by a huge margin, and is certain to retain her post. Also known as ‘Revolver Dadi,’ Verma, in 2017, became the city's third straight mayor from the BJP. The party bagged the post in 1995 as well.
Lead margin: 1,29,921 votes
Ajay Kumar Singh (Saharanpur Municipal Corporation)
A doctor by profession, Singh joined active politics only recently. A heart specialist who runs his own Medigram Hospital in Saharanpur, he contested an election for the first time.
Singh became Saharanpur mayor ahead of BSP's Khatija Masood.
Win margin: 1,54,703 votes
Archana Verma (Shahjahanpur Municipal Corporation)
Shahjahanpur's first mayor, Verma was the original candidate of the Samajwadi Party, but shifted to the BJP, which retained her candidature. Her father-in-law is MLA and former SP minister, Ram Murti Verma.
Win margin: 30,256 votes
(All figures courtesy State Election Commission, Uttar Pradesh)