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BJP sweeps UP council poll

The Bharatiya Janata Party swept the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha from the local bodies constituencies, winning 25 of the 38 seats the results of which were announced.

The BJP's main rival, the Samajwadi Party had to be content with 11 seats while the Congress could win just one seat. One seat (Sultanpur) went to an independent, supported by the Janata Dal.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, which contested the election for the first time, drew a blank. It had fielded its candidates in all but one of the constituencies.

For the BJP, which had just one seat in the Vidhan Parishad from the local bodies constituencies till the January 11 election, it was a big climb as it increased its tally to 25.

The Samajwadi Party, which had 22 members, saw its strength reduced to half.

The Congress suffered the worst setback, retaining just one seat as against its earlier tally of 12.

For the BSP, the election was a total washout as it could not even open its account. The notable losers for the BSP were former minister Harak Singh Rawat, who was defeated by the BJP's Tirath Singh Rawat by more than 700 votes in the Pauri Garhwal constituency.

The setback for the BJP came in the form of the defeat of its sitting member Manvendra Singh in the Jhansi-Lalitpur-Jalaun constituency.

Another former minister and BJP leader Hardwar Dubey lost to SP candidate Vijay Singh Rana in the Agra-Ferozabad constituency by 93 votes.

The victory of Maluk Singh Nagar against his BJP rival Krishna Veer Singh Sirohi in the Meerut-Ghaziabad constituency was the only consolation for the Congress.

A total of 282 candidates contested the election in 39 constituencies.

UNI

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