The 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 embarrassment of losing in its bastion Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of its vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Mayawati-led 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 BJP's Sanyukta Bhatia as its first woman mayor, was among the prestigious seats, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi, temple town Ayodhya and Adityanath's home turf Gorakhpur, that the BJP won.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP state president Mahendra Nath Pandey celebrate the victory of the party in the state civic body elections, at the party office in Lucknow, on Friday. Pic/PTI