The panchayat elections in Up have repainted the State's political landscape with the lush green-red of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP's deep blue, overshadowing the BJP's glistening saffron While the SP has almost replayed its spectacular performance of the 1995 zila panchayat elections, the BSP's impressive show has surprised many. The BJP got relegated to the third position and the Congress figures in a few obscure pockets only ... The four-tier election for over 3.25 lakh seats, including those of gram pradhans and members of gram panchayats, wasn't contested on party symbols. Only the 2,113 zila panchayat members were virtually elected on party lines.

A majority of the political parties had declared their official nominees ... As the heads of zila panchayats are elected from amongst them and by them, the membership of zila panchayats is a crucial component of the State's panchayat polls. Results have so far poured in for about 1943 zila panchayat seats. And there are claims and counter-claims from different political camps ...

On its part, the SP, whose party machinery is working overtime to document the poll outcome, has claimed victory in 787 of the 1943 seats for which results have been declared. In contrast, the BSP has got 368, the Congress 80, the Loktantrik Congress 40, and Kalyan Singh's RKP 35. So far 356 Independents have reportedly been elected ... (Source: The Hindustan Times. 1 July 2000)