Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the single largest party in the election to 1,079 gram panchayats in 18 districts. The three parties in the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi together, however, have won more seats than the ruling BJP-Shinde combine.
The gram panchayat elections are not contested on party symbols, making it difficult to determine individual parties’ performance. However, parties claim victory based on the affiliation of the winning candidates. Thus, the ruling BJP-Shinde camp and opposition MVA comprising the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) both have claimed to have won more seats.
According to estimates late on Monday, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning more than 230 village bodies followed by the NCP at 155, Thackeray’s Sena faction at over 150, Congress at over 140 and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction at around 110. According to estimates, the ruling front won over 350 panchayats while the MVA constituents collectively bagged more than 400 panchayats. The final figures, however, are awaited.
After the state election commission announced polls for 1,165 village panchayats, 86 were declared elected unopposed. For the remaining 1,079 bodies, an election was held on Sunday. 74 percent of the electorate cast its vote in the election.
Both sides claimed to have emerged victorious. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed that the BJP had emerged as the single largest party for the second consecutive gram panchayat elections. “We have been minutely tracking the results of the gram panchayats. Of the 889 results received so far, we have won 397,” he said. “Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena has won 81, Shiv Sena (UBT) 87, Congress 104, NCP 98 and independents have won 95. BJP-Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena is much ahead of the MVA.”
Chief minister Eknath Shinde said that the victory in 500-plus village bodies was a reaffirmation of the voters’ mandate to take forward Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology. “We are committed to taking development to rural parts of the state,” he said.
Leader of the opposition Ajit Pawar said that since gram panchayat polls were not contested on party symbols, talk of victory was misleading. “The claims by the parties are false,” he reiterated.
The NCP claimed that the MVA has won 444 panchayats against the BJP-Shinde camp’s victory in 351 bodies. “Of the total bodies won by MVA, NCP alone has bagged 190 panchayats. Two hundred and ninety-four panchayats have been won by local-level alliances. The people have completely rejected the leadership of the rebel Shinde camp MLAs in their constituencies. The NCP and other MVA constituents have made inroads in areas they had no presence in so far,” said Mahesh Tapase, NCP spokesperson.