Uttarakhand civic polls: BJP wins 5 mayoral seats

The BJP has won five of the seven mayoral seats and 34 of the 84 chairman and president posts in the Uttarakhand civic polls, while Independents sprang a surprise by grabbing 23 posts.

The Congress won 25 of the chairman and president posts in the state's civic bodies and the BSP won one post, according to the information released by the state election commission on Wednesday morning.

Results for one post is yet to be declared, it said.

The civic body poll was a high-stakes battle for the ruling BJP that was looking to match its own impressive show in the Uttarakhand elections last year when it had won 57 out of 70 assembly seats.

It was also significant for the Congress that has been struggling to stage a comeback after its defeat in the assembly polls.

The BJP won five of the seven mayoral seats, including Dehradun, Rishikesh, Kashipur, Rudrapur and Haldwani, while the Congress won Haridwar and Kotdwar, the commission said.

Voting was held for 84 urban local bodies, including seven municipal corporations, 39 municipal councils and 38 Nagar panchayats in Uttarakhand on Nov 18.

Counting for the polls began on Tuesday morning and went on till late in the afternoon Wednesday.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat termed the result "historic" and said the people had reposed their faith in the saffron party.

BJP's mayoral candidate for Dehradun, Sunil Uniyal Gama, who is said to be very close to the chief minister defeated his nearest rival Dinesh Aggarwal of the Congress by over 35000 votes.

Other victorious BJP mayoral candidates included Anita Mamgai (Rishikesh), Usha Chaudhry (Kashipur), Rampal Singh (Rudrapur) and Jogendra Rautela (Haldwani).

Congress's Anita Sharma won in Haridwar and Hemlata Negi Kotdwar.

Out of a total of 84 posts of municipal council chairmen and panchayat presidents, results of 83 have been declared. The BJP won 34, Congress 25, Independents 23 and BSP one posts.

Soon after winning the Dehradun mayoral seat, Gama drove to the chief minister's official residence to celebrate his victory with Rawat.

Rawat expressed his satisfaction at the results and termed them "encouraging" and "historic", but said the party will review the loss of some key seats, including Doiwala, his own constituency.

"Apparently it seems the equations went wrong in Doiwala. But we will definitely introspect and identify the factors which led to our defeat there," Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of the celebrations.

The chief minister said overall the results were an indication that the people had once again reposed confidence in the BJP.