Muslim activists celebrate BJP's win in UP civic polls, threatened of dire consequences

VARANASI: In a shocking incident, activists of Muslim Rashtriya Manch and Muslim Women Foundation were threatened of dire consequences by extremists for celebrating BJP's recent victory in Uttar Pradesh.

The incident took place in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As per a report, the extremists threatened activists saying that they will be killed or will be driven out of the community for celebrating the saffron party's win. They even entered one of the women's house and created a ruckus there. 

In the recently concluded urban bodies polls, the ruling BJP swept the election pocketing 14 of the 16 mayoral seats as Yogi Adityanath emerged on top in his first major electoral test after taking over as Chief Minister in March.

The Congress faced the embarrassment of losing in its bastion Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of its vice president Rahul Gandhi, who is expected to be soon elevated as party chief.

Mayawati-led BSP sprang a surprise as it thwarted the challenge from BJP candidates to win the mayoral posts in western UP's Aligarh and Meerut towns. 

Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party failed to win a single mayoral seat.

In Varanasi, BJP candidate Mridula Jaiswal defeating nearest rival, Shalini, a Congress candidateby an impressive 78,843 votes.

Adityanath who went on a whirl wind tour of the state to ensure the victory of his party candidates, described it as a "historic win". He credited the victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and Shah's guidance.

He also took potshots at Gandhi saying it would better for those criticising the Gujarat model of development to learn from the defeat in Amethi and come on the ground to do some work, rather than letting loose arrows in the air.

The BJP will now look forward to achieving the goal of one hundred per cent success in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said the people had shown full faith in the BJP.

"The SP, the BSP and the Congress contested the polls as each other's relatives. (SP chief) Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi, who were together during assembly polls as 'UP ke ladke' have become like the punctured tyre and tube of a cycle," Sharma said taking a jibe.

He rejected opposition's charges of EVM tampering.

SP leader and MLC Rajpal Kashyap alleged it was "disheartening" that the BJP gained on places where EVMs were used. The SP is closely analysing the results, he said.

While the BJP stellar performance in these civic polls is impressive, the party had bagged a lion's share of the mayoral seats even in the last local body polls.

This time, the counting of the ballots polled in three phases on November 22, 26 and 29 was held under tight security cover and CCTV surveillance at 334 centres in district and tehsil headquarters, the state election commission said.

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 per cent of the 3.32 crore voters.