UP urban local body polls to test BJP, SP ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections

BJP and its principal political rival Samajwadi Party (SP) would be facing their first major test ahead of the next year's Lok Sabha elections in the forthcoming urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh.

While the saffron party has been spearheading its campaign with the slogan of 'triple engine sarkar' (governments at the centre, state and local bodies) and touting the developmental works undertaken by the Yogi Adityanath government in the state along with the 'Hindutva', the SP has been harping on the issues concerning the farmers, rising prices and unemployment.

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BJP, however, took a lead in launching its campaign for the urban local body polls with Chief minister Yogi Adityanath already visiting all the municipal corporations while the state ministers visiting different nagar palika parishads and nagar panchayats across the state.

''Only a triple engine government can ensure all round development of the state... we are going into the polls with a positive agenda... the government at the centres and in the state have taken many steps for the benefit of all sections of the society,'' said a state BJP leader while speaking to DH on Saturday.

For a change the saffron party has decided to give tickets to a 'sizeable' number of Muslims in the polls from the areas, where they have greater numerical strength. The leader said that the party had received applications from a large number of Muslims who wanted to contest from Muslim dominated areas in the west and central regions of the state.

The SP, on the other hand was banking on what it claimed 'resentment' among the people over failure of the BJP government to resolve issues concerning the farmers as well as rising prices of essential commodities. ''We will highlight the problems of the potato farmers, shortage of fertilisers, rising prices and unemployment,'' said an SP leader here.

SP has an alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has considerable influence in the 'Jat' dominated western UP districts. Firebrand dalit leader and Bheem Army chief Chandrashekhar alias Ravan is also likely to campaign for the SP-RLD alliance in the polls.

Although the Congress and the BSP would also be putting up their candidates in the polls, the political experts said that they could only influence the outcome of the polls in pockets.

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In the 2017 local urban body polls, BJP had won 14 of the 17 municipal corporations besides 70 chairpersons' posts and around 600 corporators' seats.

The Allahabad High Court had in December last year quashed the state government's draft notification on reservation for the OBC in the urban local body polls and ordered for holding the polls without OBC reservation. The government had come under sharp attack from the opposition parties after the HC judgement and the opposition leaders had accused the BJP government of conspiring to scrap OBC reservation in the polls.

The state government challenged the HC order in the Supreme Court and had also set up a commission to look into the issues concerning reservation for the OBC in the urban local body polls in the state. The recommendations of the Commission were accepted later after which the SC allowed the state election commission to issue notification for the polls.