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14,000 Maharashtra gram panchayats to go to polls on January 15
The nominations will be accepted from December 23-30, while scrutiny will be done on December 31. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is January 4
Elections to 14,234 gram panchayats in 34 of the 36 districts in the state will be held on January 15 and counting will take place on January 18, the state election commission announced on Friday.
The nominations will be accepted from December 23-30, while scrutiny will be done on December 31. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is January 4. The final electoral rolls will be published on December 14. “The code of conduct has come into force,” state election commissioner UPS Madan said in a statement.
Of the total 27,881 gram panchayats, over half the local bodies are going to polls in January. The January 15 polls will be spread across five regions– Konkan, Western Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidarbha and North Maharashtra. Konkan division has 798 gram panchayats going to polls, while Nashik division has 2,476, Pune division has 2,870, Aurangabad division has 4,134, Amravati division has 2,448 and Nagpur division has 1,508.
Of these, elections to 1,566 gram panchayats were slated to be held on March 31, 2020, but were deferred owing to the Covid-induced lockdown. The election, however, will be held in the backdrop of the pandemic and the possibility of a second wave of infections in the state.
The polls will prove to be a litmus test for the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) against the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to check their acceptance and popularity in the hinterland.
The three parties – the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress – are expected to contest the gram panchayat elections in an alliance. However, there is no official announcement yet. The MVA recently contested the polls for the five seats of the legislative Council and got success in keeping the BJP out.
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