After governor’s nod, 1,570 gram panchayats to elect their sarpanch

After the governor sanctioned newly passed bill amending Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act to elect a sarpanch (village head) from the elected members of the village

After the governor sanctioned newly passed bill amending Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act to elect a sarpanch (village head) from the elected members of the village body, the state election commission (SEC) has reversed its earlier order of holding the sarpanch elections on March 29.

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Elections in 1,570-gram panchayats will be held this month to elect the members, who will, in turn, elect the sarpanch or head of the body.

Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, while reversing the previous Fadnavis government’s decision of electing the sarpanch directly from within the voters, passed the bill for both the houses on February 25. The day before, the SEC had however announced the elections for the gram panchayats and their sarpanch whose term was ending.

The state government had requested the SEC to hold the elections announced as per the amended laws by dropping the direct elections to the village bodies. “Though we had announced the elections, to draw the reservations for the posts of sarpanches was not headed by the district collectors. In the absence of the reservation, we had put the elections on the hold. We have also been told that the honourable governor has now given his nod. We will now go ahead with the elections of the gram panchayats and the sarpanch will now be elected from the elected members,” said Kiran Kurundkar, secretary, SEC.

Arvind Kumar, principal secretary, rural development department said, “The state government has issued a notification after the assent by the governor. The sarpanches will now be elected from the members, and reservations for their seats will be drawn in due course.” There was uncertainty over the elections as governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari took about ten days to give his nod to the bill, he said.