BJP wins 16 of 17 mayoral posts in UP, CM Adityanath hails verdict
The ruling BJP swept the mayoral elections in Uttar Pradesh winning the posts in 16 of the 17 municipal corporations on Saturday. Official results for the Varanasi mayoral election are expected later on Saturday.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who claimed victory in all the 17 municipal corporations, thanked the people of Uttar Pradesh and congratulated BJP workers for forming a "triple-engine government" in the state after the party's "biggest victory" in the urban local body polls.
The party's candidates won in Lucknow, Ayodhya, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura-Vrindavan, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Meerut.
The urban local body polls were held in two phases -- on May 4 and May 11 -- to elect 17 mayors and 1,401 corporators. Nineteen corporators were elected unopposed, according to the State Election Commission.
Of the 17 municipal corporations, the BJP repeated its candidates only in Kanpur city, Bareilly an