Uttar Pradesh Civic Polls 2017: When an independent candidate won in CM Yogi Adityanath's bastion

Nadira Khatoon defeated BJP's Maya Tripathi by 483 votes in Gorakhpur's ward number 68 where the Gorakhnath Peeth is located.

Nadira Khatoon. (Photo courtesy: ANI)

New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday registered a comprehensive win in the Uttar Pradesh Civic Polls 2017 - comfortably winning 14 of the 16 municipal corporations. The resounding triumph though was slightly blemished when an independent candidate defeated her BJP rival in Gorakhpur's ward number 68 where the Gorakhnath Peeth is located.

Meet Nadira Khatoon who defeated BJP's Maya Tripathi by 483 votes in an outcome that has surprised many. Afterall, Chief Minister Adityanath heads the Gorakhnath Mutt and has been a Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh for five consecutive terms since 1998. 

Many regard Gorakhpur as Adityanath's bastion and a complete win for BJP here was being considered a given. Instead, two of the four seats around Gorakhnath temple were won by independents. Another seat was won by a candidate from Samajwadi Party - a political unit now staring at falling from a major player to a non-entity in the state.

Nonetheless, the mood in the BJP camp is expectedly upbeat. The party won in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Agra, Firozabad, Ayodhya, Mathura, Lucknow, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Jhansi, Bareilly and Moradabad. While Adityanath credited the triumph to PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah's visionary leadership, PM Modi himself said it is a reward for the party's focus on development.

(With agency inputs)