SP sweeps Zila Panchayat elections

LUCKNOW, The ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) of Uttar Pradesh swept the Zila panchayat elections bagging 59 out of 74 seats, 38 of which were unopposed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a blow with the loss their candidate in Parliamentary Constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) suffered setbacks as the former won six seats and the latter rested to just four.

The elections were held without any political affiliation but party supported candidates were fielded. In 59 places SP supported candidates have won, BJP in six places while Congress just one. The major debacle for the BJP was in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Modi, where BJP supported candidate Amit Sonkar was defeated by SP supported nominee Aprijata.

Congress managed to retain its Zila Panchayat seat in Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency of party president Sonia Gandhi, defeating an SP candidate by a margin of 10 votes. Congress candidate Awadhesh Singh, brother of MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh, defeated SP candidate Prabhat Kumar in a direct contest in the district Panchayat polls.

While,in Amethi, the parliamentary constituency of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, party candidate had withdrawn the nominations in favour of the SP candidate, where the latter won this election unopposed.