There is no denying that these elections are contested on local issues and perception about candidates matter more than their party affiliations. Since the turnout was a mere 52 percent, we can assume that people were not enthusiastic about the whole exercise as they usually are.

In the 2012 urban body elections, the BJP had won 88 of the 629 seats on offer, which translates to a winning percentage of just 14. But that was another era and the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party had won a thumping majority in the state Assembly elections only a few months earlier. The BJP’s performance was rather dismal in the Assembly as well as urban body elections.

More appropriate comparison, therefore, would be to see the winning percentage of this round of elections with the recently-concluded Assembly elections in the state.