Ruling alliance, opposition both claim to have won maximum panchayats

Even as the parties’ claims flew thick and fast, officials from the state election commission said these had no validity. “In many gram panchayats, sarpanchs are affiliated to one party while the members are from other parties,” said an official

MUMBAI: Both the ruling three-party alliance and the opposition combine on Monday claimed to have won the majority of the 2,359 gram panchayats that went to the polls on Sunday. The claims, however, cannot not be corroborated, as the elections to gram panchayats are not held on party names or symbols.

NCP workers of Ajit Pawar faction celebrate outside NCP office in Thane after NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) victory in Maharashtra gram panchyat elections. (Praful Gangurde / HT Photo)

After the election, which recorded a 74 % turnout, over 20,000 members were elected to the panchayats. According to local reports, the BJP, at over 650 seats, was the leader, followed by the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, which won over 400. The Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and the Congress have reportedly won over 250 panchayats each, while the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP and the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena have bagged about 200 seats each. Significantly, in Sharad Pawar’s stronghold Baramati, it was Ajit Pawar who retained his hold over the villages in his assembly constituency.

Even as the parties’ claims flew thick and fast, officials from the state election commission said these had no validity. “In many gram panchayats, sarpanchs are affiliated to one party while the members are from other parties,” said an official. “Members are often close to leaders from several parties so one categorise them. Claiming the number of winners is a new trend in politics—this would never happen in the past.”

Nevertheless, the BJP claimed victory in 778 gram panchayats, the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) claimed victory in 301, and the NCP (Ajit faction) claimed it had won 407. The Shiv Sena (UBT) said it had won 115, the Congress 287, the NCP (Sharad Pawar) 144, while others in the fray won 352 panchayats. BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye declared that the ruling alliance had won three times more panchayats than the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and all the gram panchayats in Baramati tehsil, the Pawar family stronghold.

The MVA, on the other hand, claimed that it had won 1,312 gram panchayats and accused the BJP of making false claims. “The BJP should announce the names of the panchayats it has won to substantiate its claim,” said Congress state unit chief Nana Patole. “The Congress alone has won 589 panchayats and the local alliance affiliated to us won 132, taking the total to 721.”

Winners and losers

The NCP’s Ajit faction won 109 panchayats out of the 231 in Pune district, Ajit’s stronghold. The Sharad Pawar faction won 27. In Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, the stronghold of the undivided Shiv Sena, the BJP has reportedly won the maximum seats.

Significantly, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti, headed by Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, has made inroads into Maharashtra by winning nine seats in Bhandara, and some seats in other Vidarbha districts and Pandharpur in Solapur.

MLA Rohit Pawar and MP Amol Kolhe from the Pawar NCP and the Shiv Sena-UBT MLA from Kudal in Sindhudurg suffered a setback, as the ruling alliance won the panchayats in their constituencies. Minister from the Shinde Sena Deepak Kesarkar failed to retain the panchayats in his constituency. In Jamner tehsil of Jalgaon, Girish Mahajan of the BJP won all 17 panchayats. Mahajan said that of the 167 panchayats in Jalgaon, over 100 had been won by his party.

Ajit wins Baramati, BJP inches into Pawar family stronghold

In the first election to be held after the split in the NCP on July 2, the results of the Baramati tehsil in Pune district were significant. Ajit Pawar proved his hold on Baramati, a traditional stronghold of the Pawars, by winning 28 of the 30 panchayats. The remaining two were won by the BJP in its maiden foray into the tehsil.

Interestingly, Kathewadi, the native village of the Pawars, too stood by Ajit, whose faction won 14 out of 16 seats that contested in the village. “Although the Sharad Pawar faction failed to win any gram panchayat in Baramati, it is also because it showed less interest in Baramati,” said an NCP leader from the Sharad Pawar faction. “The two factions have a tacit understanding to not intensify the tussle on home turf.”