The counting of votes for the urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh began on Saturday morning. In the initial trends, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is ahead in 14 corporations in UP including Varanasi, Ayodhya and Lucknow municipal corporations.
The counting began at 8 am. Lucknow District Magistrate Suryapal Gangwar and Joint Commissioner of Police Upendra Agrawal reviewed the preparations in the state capital.
The Urban Local Body (ULB) polls were held in two phases on May 4 and May 11.
Out of the 17 mayor seats, BJP is leading on 14 seats. In 2017, BJP had won 14 seats out of the 16 mayor seats. Shahjanapur was the 17th corporation, which was added in 2018.
After the first round of counting in Agra, BSP is leading by over 12,000 votes (at 11 am), while BJP was trailing with 7,300 votes.
17 mayors and 1,401 corporators will be elected after the results are declared on Saturday. As many as 19 corporators have been elected unopposed.
Majority of the exit polls has predicted BJP winning at least 10 municipal corporation, while Akhilesh Yadav's SP and Mayawati's BSP getting less than 5.
The Election Commission has set up 353 counting centers for the elections.
Meerut and Aligarh had Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) mayors in 2017, while the BJP ruled the rest of the civic bodies.
The ULB polls will also elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of nagar palika parishads. For nagar panchayats, the fate of 542 chairpersons and 7,104 members will be decided.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), there were 83,378 candidates in the fray for 14,522 posts. During the campaign, senior leaders of various political parties visited different parts of the state.
(With PTI inputs)
