The counting of votes cast during the two-phase polling of urban local bodies and bypolls to two assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh began on Saturday morning.
Officials said most of the preparations have been completed and the counting of votes began at 8 am on Saturday.
He told that in view of the increasing heat, instructions have been given to arrange cold water and syrup at the counting centers.
The State Election Commission (SEC) said that 353 counting centers have been set up.
Lucknow District Magistrate Suryapal Gangwar and Joint Commissioner of Police Upendra Agarwal reviewed the preparations in the state capital.
The bypolls were held on May 10 in Swar assembly seat in Rampur district and Chanbe (SC) in Mirzapur district. Both the seats were a direct contest between the BJP-led ruling coalition and the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP). say analysts.
The Swar seat fell vacant in February after a Moradabad court disqualified SP leader Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam Khan as an MLA after he was sentenced to two years in jail in a 15-year-old case.
The Chanbe seat fell vacant after the death of Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Rahul Prakash Kol in February.
The ULB elections were held in two phases on May 4 and May 11.
According to the Election Commission data, out of total 4.32 crore voters, about 53 per cent voters exercised their franchise during the ULB elections.
After the results are declared on Saturday, 17 mayors and 1,401 councilors will be elected. 19 councilors have been elected unopposed.
Shahjahanpur will elect its mayor this year for the first time since the city became a municipal corporation in 2018.
Meerut and Aligarh had mayors from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2017, while the rest of the civic bodies were ruled by the BJP.
The ULB polls will also elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of municipal councils. For Nagar Panchayats, the fate of 542 chairpersons and 7,104 members will be decided.
As per SEC, 83,378 candidates were in the fray for 14,522 posts.
During the campaign, senior leaders of various political parties visited different parts of the state.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his allies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak campaigned extensively for the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates. State BJP President Bhupendra Singh Chowdhary and former Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma also held election meetings for party candidates.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav did a road show. Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav also campaigned for the party candidates.
Whoever wins the majority of seats in the ULB elections will try to show their strength ahead of the crucial 2024 general election as UP sends a maximum of 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
Now the parties and their candidates are eagerly waiting for the results.
UP BJP spokesperson Hero Bajpai said, “BJP is going to win all the 17 mayoral seats. It will gain a major share in the corporators’ category. The party will also perform very well in municipal councils and nagar panchayats.”
SP spokesperson Deepak Ranjan said the ULB election “will create a surprise. The cycle (SP’s election symbol) has taken off, while the lotus (BJP’s symbol) has not blossomed,” Mr Ranjan asserted.
UP Congress media convenor Ashok Singh also said that the party’s performance in the elections will surprise everyone.
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) spokesperson Ankur Saxena said his party’s performance would be “very good”.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Shekhar Dixit said that people have blessed us in the civic polls and the results will prove it. He said people have understood that the Aam Aadmi Party is the “only alternative” to the BJP.
Expressing confidence, Rajesh Srivastava, spokesperson of the UP unit of Apna Dal (Sonelal), said, “Both the candidates of the party will register an emphatic victory in the assembly bypolls.”