Counting begins for Uttar Pradesh civic polls

Lucknow: Counting for the Uttar Pradesh local body polls began today in all the districts amid tight security.

The elections, coming eight months after the BJP's landslide victory in the UP Assembly polls, are being seen as the first popularity test for the Yogi Adityanath government."The counting of ballots has started in all districts on a peaceful note. The results are likely by afternoon," State Election Commission said here.

The counting was going on for 16 nagar nigam, 198 nagar palika parishad and 438 nagar panchayats, it said.In 2012, BJP had a mayor in 12 municipal corporations.The Yogi Adityanath government, after assuming office, constituted two municipal corporations of Ayodhya and Vrindavan-Mathura.The polling percentage of the third phase on November 29 in 26 districts of the state witnessed a voter turnout of 53 per cent.

The previous two phases of polling on November 22 and 26 had recorded a turnout of 52.59 and 49.3 respectively taking the average of all the three phases to 52.5 per cent.The overall percentage recorded an improvement from 46.2 per cent in 2012 to 52.5 per cent this time.The election campaign generated a lot of political heat with the ruling BJP leaving nothing to chance.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath criss-crossed the state to woo voters in the name of development, while opposition SP, BSP and Congress campaigns were comparatively low key.Both SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati did not campaign for their candidates.