Dehradun: Uttarakhand voters rejected both the established parties to choose independent candidates as councillors in the recently concluded civic elections in the state. The independents won more than half of the total councillor posts in the state.Of the 1,055 councillor posts (for which the results were available) the independents won 551 seats while the BJP had to settle for 323. The Congress was a dismal third with just 181 seats in its kitty.The results, however, were largely similar to the last civic elections when the independents won more than 53% of the total seats while BJP and Congress could get only 26% and 19.5% of the total councillor seats respectively.In both plain and hill districts, the independents were way ahead of the two parties. In many districts, the number of winning independent candidates was higher than the number of councillors from both the BJP and Congress combined.With over 70% seats, independents dominated in Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Almora, Champawat and Pithoragarh districts.While the BJP fared slightly better than the independents in Chamoli, Dehradun and Bageshwar districts, the Congress was the worst performer in all the 13 districts of the hill state. In not a single district could the Congress win more seats that the BJP.In four districts of Almora, Champawat, Nainital and Rudraprayag, not a single councillor was elected from the party. These four districts had more than 200 seats. In three other districts, the party scored in single digits. Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts, however, were the only face saver for the Congress as the grand old party secured 70% (121) of its seats from these three districts.The Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), however, bucked the trend as the number of independents in the 100-ward DMC was limited to just six while the BJP won 60 seats and the Congress had to settle for 34 wards.Dehradun district also favoured the two parties compared to independents. Of the 193 seats in the district, BJP won 90 seats while the Congress won 60 and 43 seats went to independent candidates.

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