1 week Ago
Uttarakhand Civic Election Result: The counting of votes for the Uttarakhand Municipal Corporation Election 2025 is underway at 54 centres across 13 districts on Saturday, January 25. The voting, held on January 23 across 100 municipal bodies, including 11 municipal corporations , 43 municipal councils and 46 nagar panchayats, recorded a turnout of 65.41 per cent – 4.
38 per cent lower compared to the previous elections. The voting on Thursday took place through ballot papers across 1,515 polling centres and 3,394 polling booths. As many as 72 candidates are in the fray mayoral polls while 445 are vying for the posts of municipal council chairpersons.
Over 4,000 candidates are in the fray to become councillors in the elections. The use of ballot papers has caused delays in result announcements, with final outcomes expected by late night or early Sunday morning. There were reports of voter list discrepancies during the elections raising questions about the State Election Commission's functioning.
Uniform Civil Code Impact The Bharatiya Janata Party 's (BJP), which is in power in the state, went to the civic elections buoyed by the Cabinet approval for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The saffron party’s campaign led by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami revolved around bringing in a 'triple engine government' – same party in power at Centre, in state and in civic bodies. The BJP also raised issues like population rise and demographic change in the run up to civic polls.
The Congress has, however, written to the State Election Commission over the UCC cabinet decision calling it violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The party contested elections on local issues like unemployment, corruption and alleged misuse of land. In the last local body polls held in 2018, the BJP won six mayoral posts, while the Congress won two.
The Congress won 14 chairpersons’ posts as against the BJP’s 13. In the nagar panchayats, the BJP currently has 17 chairpersons while the Congress has seven. After failing to win even one of the state’s five seats in 2024 Lok Sabha polls , the Congress made a comeback a month later winning the Badrinath and Manglaur bypolls.
The party, however, lost the Kedarnath Assembly bypoll in November last year to the BJP..
