Uttar Pradesh Civic Polls 2017 Results: A few firsts and major takeaways..

Uttar Pradesh Civic Polls 2017 Results: A few firsts and major takeaways
An upbeat Adityanath took a dig at the Congress and said the party, which was dreaming of winning the Gujarat Assembly polls, has even lost its bastion Amethi, represented in Lok Sabha by Rahul Gandhi.
In Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's first big test, his party, the BJP, appeared set for a massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh civic polls winning 14 of 16 mayoral seats, including the prestigious Ayodhya and Varanasi.

An upbeat Adityanath took a dig at the Congress and said the party, which was dreaming of winning the Gujarat Assembly polls, has even lost its bastion Amethi, represented in Lok Sabha by Rahul Gandhi.

"Jo Gujarat jeetne ka sapna dekh rahe hain, unka yahan Amethi mein bhi soopda saaf ho gaya hai (Those who were dreaming of winning Gujarat have lost Amethi badly)," he said, ridiculing the Congress, which lost in the party pocket borough.

But the election, easily won by the BJP, also threw some surprises and a few firsts. Have a look:

BJP's Sanyukta Bhatia created history for being elected the first woman mayor of state capital Lucknow, defeating nearest rival, Samajwadi Party's Meera Vardhan, by a huge margin of 1,31,356 votes.
Lucknow has, however, thrice sent a woman to the Lok Sabha as its representative with Sheila Kaul being elected in 1971, 1980 and 1984.
In a shot in the arm for Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), its candidate Mohammad Furqan won elected the Mayor of Aligarh, becoming the first Muslim to occupy the post after independence.
Furqan defeated BJP candidate Rajiv Agarwal by 11,990 votes. The BSP candidate's victory is significant as the Mayawati-led party was badly mauled in the UP Assembly elections earlier this year.
In Ayodhya, which the Adityanath government turned into a municipal corporation along with Mathura-Vrindavan shortly after coming to power, the BJP's Rishikesh Upadhayay virtually got the perfect birthday gift from the voters of Ayodhya and Faizabad, who elected him as the first Mayor of the temple town.
Upadhyay's victory is significant since it was from Ayodhya that Yogi Adityanath had kicked off his hectic blitzkrieg for the Uttar Pradesh urban local body elections.
Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also made an impressive debut and ended up becoming the fifth major political player in the state. The AAP won two chairman posts and 33 Councillor and Ward Member posts in various districts.
"Congratulations to Team UP and the people of the state for a stunning beginning. Now we have to serve the people with utmost dedication and work with people to win their hearts," Kejriwal tweeted.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) also was a significant contender in the election for 652 civic bodies in Uttar Pradesh. According to the latest results, the AIMIM has so far won more than 20 seats. It had contested on 78 seats, mostly in Muslim-dominated areas.
Though the Congress and the Samajwadi Party also registered victories in various parts of India's most populous state, they were nowhere in the picture in the 16 municipal corporations, all of which barring two went to the ruling BJP. The BSP won the other two..