(LiveMint)
BJP on Friday surged ahead of its rivals, leading on 14 of the 16 mayoral seats in Uttar Pradesh civic polls 2017 that were held in three phases. In the remaining two places, the BSP was leading, according to trends from these seats in the first four hours of counting of votes for all the 652 urban local bodies that began at 8am.The civic polls are being seen as a referendum of Yogi Adityanath government’s performance in the past seven months. Polling was held for 16 nagar nigams, 198 nagar palika parishads and 438 nagar panchayats with an average turnout of all the three phases estimated at 52.5% of the 3.32 crore voters. The BJP had won 10 out of 12 mayoral seats in 2012.
