LUCKNOW: 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.
He also termed as "suspicious" the role of the State Election Commission and said the BJP won the polls through "fraudulent counting" of votes and not by popular mandate.
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.
Later, in a statement issued here, Yadav said the results would have been better for the Samajwadi Party if the "BJP government" had not rigged the elections by using money and misusing power.
"From removing (names of) voters from the electoral rolls, getting fake (fraudulent) votes cast, slowing down the counting, the BJP tried every trick to influence the elections. The government and the administration acted as the BJP's agents and worked to defeat the winning candidates of the Samajwadi Party," he added.
Yadav alleged that the election was not contested by the BJP but by the state government.
"It was completely a managed election of the government. All kinds of conspiracies were done to swing the results in favour of the BJP. The chief minister himself was engaged in misusing the power," Yadav said.
Raising questions over the State Election Commission's functioning, Yadav said it is a matter of regret that the poll body's role was suspicious.
"Complaining about rigging in the first phase of civic elections, the Samajwadi Party had demanded concrete arrangements for voting in a fear-free environment in the second phase. At the time of the counting of votes, even force was used to suppress the voice of the opposition. But the State Election Commission became a mute spectator," he said.
The truth is that the BJP won by fraud in the counting of votes and not by the people's mandate, he alleged.
"This so-called election victory of the BJP is (an act of) fraud with democracy, disregard of the oath of the Constitution and insult of public opinion. There cannot be a bigger mockery of democracy than this," the former chief minister said.
"The loot of votes and the forcible capture of the civic bodies will cost the BJP very dearly. Lakhs of voters are now waiting for 2024 (Lok Sabha elections) when they will teach a befitting lesson to the BJP," he claimed.
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 per cent).
The Samajwadi Party won 78 posts while the Bahujan Samaj Party clinched victories in 37.
The Congress won 14 seats.
Independent candidates asserted themselves on the Nagar Panchayat members' seats as well, winning 4,824 of the 7,177 (67.21 per cent) available.
The BJP won 1,403 seats followed by the Samajwadi Party with 485 and the Bahujan Samaj Party with 215.
The Congress bagged 77 seats and the Rashtriya Lok Dal won 38.
The urban local body elections were held in two phases on May 4 and 11 to elect 17 mayors and 1,401 corporators.
As many as 19 corporators were elected unopposed, the commission had said.
Voting was also held to elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of Nagar Palika Parishads, 542 chairpersons of Nagar Panchayats and 7,104 members of Nagar Panchayats.