Dehradun: Independent candidates emerged the major winners in wards across Uttarakhand as results of the civic polls started pouring in on Tuesday. The results were, as far as the win of independent candidates was concerned, a continuation of a trend that has been seen in previous civic elections in the state. In the last three civic polls, too, more than half of the seats of ward members had been won by independents.Out of a total of 1,064 ward seats, results were declared for 863 wards by 11.12pm. Of these, 488 were won by independents, 230 by the BJP and 138 by the Congress. Two seats were won by Aam Aadmi Party and one each by Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal.Out of the 633 ward seats in 2008, independents had won 300, with the BJP emerging victorious in 177 and Congress in 135 wards. In 2013, 369 independents won in 690 wards, whereas BJP bagged 180 wards and Congress 135.Political analyst Udit Ghildiyal said that the reason behind the high number of independents winning the ward polls is because personal connect matters in wards. “Most of the seats are decided by a margin of less than 200 votes. Personal reputation and rapport plays a key role in these polls,” he said.Even in thee polls to elect mayors as well as chairpersons of nagar palikas, nagar parishads and nagar panchayats, independents emerged as a force to reckon with. Out of the 101 results announced for the posts of chairperson of nagar palikas, nagar parishads and nagar panchayats till 9pm, BJP had won 34, independents 48 and Congress 19.In 2013, out of the 69 posts of mayor and chairpersons, independents had won 22 seats, BJP got 22 and Congress 20. It was a similar scenario in 2008 when 22 independent candidates had occupied the posts of chairpersons, while 18 from BJP and 17 from Congress had registered a win.Analysing why independents fare well in civic polls and whether it was becuase strong candidates who were denied tickets by BJP and Congress were contensting as independents, political analyst Jay Singh Rawat said, “Around 10 to 15 people from each leading party stake claim for a ticket. On being denied an opportunity, a good number of them do file their nominations as independents. But at the end of the day, what matters is how much support the candidate has among locals.”

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