Uttar Pradesh civic polls 2017: Sanyukta Bhatia to be Lucknow's first woman mayor in 100 years

Sanyukta Bhatia has been a member of the BJP since the party was formed in 1980.

Pic Courtesy: @sanyuktabhatia

LUCKNOW: Sanyukta Bhatia is set to become Lucknow's first woman mayor in 100 years. The mayoral seat in Uttar Pradesh’s capital has been reserved for women. 

Bhatia's main adversaries were Congress' Prema Awasthi and Samajwadi Party's Meera Vardhan. 

Bhatia's husband Satish was a two-time MLA from Lucknow Cantonment and her son Prashant is a RSS Vibhag Karyavah (local functionary). 

She has been a member of the BJP since the party was formed in 1980.

Of the city's 110 wards, the BJP had won 44 in 2012 and the incumbent mayor is Suresh Awasthi. 

This is the first time Lucknow will have a woman mayor since the UP Municipalities Act came into being in 1916. Incidentally, the state was the first in India to have a woman governor - Sarojini Naidu was the governor of the state from 1947 to 1949. 

Uttar Pradesh is also the first state to have the first female Chief Minister - Sucheta Kriplani.

Not only has the BJP routed the opposition in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow, initial trends suggest that the party will also have control over Kanpur, the state's financial capital. Here, the party seems set to win 56 of the 110 wards. 

The party is also winning big in neighbouring areas like Sitapur and Barbanki.