Congress stock slides further in UP as factionalism leaves party in shreds
LUCKNOW: If the UP civic polls are any indication of grassroots political realities in the state, then the Congress has nothing to write home about in the most populous state, its spectacular show in Karnataka notwithstanding.
The party has yet again failed to make a mark in the UP civic polls which witnessed a further decline in the party stature in a state that sends the highest 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. There are usual complaints: an internecine strife within, the absence of the top brass during campaigning and faulty ticket distribution.
A deep dive into the performance of the party in the recent UP urban local body polls reveals the party’s decline in comparison with the 2017 civic polls. The Grand Old Party has won just about half the number of seats vis-à-vis 2017. The vote share too has gone down from 3.70% in 2017 to 2.13%.
The party failed to open its account in mayoral polls to 17 municipal corporations. The party managed to win a total of 263 seats, including 77 of 1,401 corporator seats, 4 of 199 Nagar Palika Parishad chairperson seats, 91 of 5,260 Nagar Palika Parishad members, 14 of 542 Nagar Panchayat chairpersons and 77 of 7,104 Nagar Panchayat members.
The Congress victories seem diminutive as the civic elections were held in 760 urban local bodies for 14,684 posts. In 2017, Congress had won 420 seats, including 110 corporators, nine Nagar Palika Parishad chairpersons, 158 Nagar Panchayat Parishad members, 17 Nagar Panchayat chairpersons and 126 Nagar Panchayat members. It had won 453 seats in 2012 civic polls.
The only saving grace was that a few of the Congress candidates managed to emerge as first runner up leaving their SP and BSP counterparts behind in three mayoral seats including Shahjahanpur, Jhansi and Moradabad. State party chief Brij Lal Khabri said that it was not the BJP but the state government that won the polls for the party candidates.
