BJP sweeps UP civic polls, Congress loses even in Amethi

BJP's Sanyukta Bhatia was elected as the first woman mayor of Lucknow

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  swept the Uttar Pradesh civic polls on Friday 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 embarrasment of losing in its bastion Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi.

Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), meanwhile, sprang a surprise as it thwarted the challenge from BJP candidates to win the mayoral posts in western UP’s Aligarh and Meerut towns.

Lucknow, which elected the BJP’s Sanyukta Bhatia as its first woman mayor, was