UP Nikay Elections 2023 Results: Counting of votes for Nagar Nigam, Nagar Panchayat, Nagar Palika Parishad polls today

The stage is set for the counting of votes for the 2023 Uttar Pradesh Urban Local Body (ULB) elections held in two phases. The voters of the urban areas in Uttar Pradesh exercised their franchise on May 4 and May 11 to elect their representatives at different levels of the ULBs: Municipal Corporation or Nagar Nigam; Municipal Council or Nagar Palika Parishad; and Nagar Panchayat.

The ULBs are responsible for the governance and administration of cities and towns. Each entity operates at a specific scale and has varying degrees of administrative and financial powers.

There were 83,378 candidates in the fray for 14,522 posts in this year's UP civic polls, according to the State Election Commission. Seventeen mayors and 1,401 corporators will be elected after the results are declared on Saturday. As many as 19 corporators have already been elected unopposed. The civic polls, or nikay chunav, 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.

The counting of votes will start at 8am.

The results of the UP civic elections would also determine the political standing of leaders tasked with campaign duties as most of the political parties deployed senior functionaries and veterans to gain an upper hand.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak campaigned extensively for the BJP candidates. State BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and former Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma also held election meetings for party candidates. Samajwadi Party chief and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav held roadshows. Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav also campaigned for party candidates.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be eyeing a repeat of, or even better, its 2017 performance, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, and Congress would be hoping to regain the lost ground.

The campaign also saw symbolic efforts of opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (SP-RLD) parties backing the Congress-supported candidate on the Mathura seat.

What happened in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh ULB polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the dominant force, securing an impressive victory across various local bodies. The party's success was attributed to the appeal of its development agenda, as well as the wave of support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. The BJP's victory in the ULB polls cemented its position in Uttar Pradesh's political landscape and propelled it to subsequent triumphs in subsequent state and national elections.

Meerut and Aligarh had BSP mayors in 2017, while the BJP ruled the rest civic bodies.

Shahjahanpur will elect its mayor for the first time this year as the city became a municipal corporation in 2018, a year after the last civil polls were held in Uttar Pradesh.