UP local body polls: BJP 'lost miserably' in seats outside city, says SP

The BJP "lost miserably" in seats located just outside city limits despite "adopting every trick" in the Uttar Pradesh urban local body elections, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday.

The BJP on Saturday registered wins on all 17 mayoral seats -- Varanasi, Lucknow, Ayodhya, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura-Vrindavan, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Meerut.

It also won 813 of the 1,420 corporator seats while the opposition Samajwadi Party bagged 191 and the Bahujan Samaj Party 85.

In a tweet in Hindi, Yadav congratulated the victorious Samajwadi Party nominees and all the "other" candidates who won by fighting against the BJP.

"Moving a little out of the cities, the BJP lost miserably even after adopting every trick," he added.

According to the State Election Commission, the BJP won 191 (35.11 per cent) of the 544 posts of Nagar Panchayat chairpersons while Independent candidates bagged 195 (35.85 p