The Maharashtra BJP has claimed a resounding victory in the just-held Gram Panchayat elections and stated that 259 candidates supported by its party and 40 nominees backed by a faction of Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde have been elected as sarpanches in the polls held on Sunday.
Voting for elections to 547 Gram Panchayats spread across 16 districts of Maharashtra recorded 76 percent turnout and were held on a non-party basis. The counting of votes took place on Monday. Besides elections to gram panchayats, direct polls for the post of village sarpanches were also conducted.
Addressing a presser in Nagpur, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said 259 candidates supported by BJP and 40 by Shinde faction have been elected as sarpanches in the elections. In total, more than 50 per cent of the newly-elected sarpanches are supporters of the Shinde-BJP alliance, he asserted, adding, “Gram panchayat results have confirmed Maharashtra’s faith in the Shinde-Fadnavis government.”
Devendra Fadnavis, who is the Deputy Chief Minister in the Shinde-led government, congratulated the winning candidates and stated that BJP has became the “number 1 party again” in Maharashtra.
Taking to Twitter, Fadnavis tweeted in Marathi, “BJP and Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde got resounding success in Gram Panchayat elections. BJP became the number 1 party again! All the winning candidates and your striving for this success @BJP4Maharashtra. Congratulations to all the workers and officials!”
BJP and Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknathrao Shinde got resounding success in Gram Panchayat elections.
BJP became the number 1 party again!
All the winning candidates and your striving for this success @BJP4Maharashtra Congratulations to all the workers and officials! https://t.co/er0H9aZfoq
— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) September 19, 2022
However, Opposition parties in the state – NCP and Congress – have claimed different figures. As per them, the Bharatiya Janata Party has won 144 seats, NCP got 126, the Congress bagged 62, Shinde faction got 41 and Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena won 37 seats.
“Some are saying they are on number one, number two… reality is, these elections are not fought on political symbols. If a sarpanch writes and says that I support this party, then it’s a different thing. As per the numbers you are showing, MVA has the highest seats. But I will repeat that these elections are not fought on political party symbols,” senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar was quoted as saying by NDTV.
After a month-long power tussle with Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra, Shinde, along with 39 other MLAs, walked out of the Shiv Sena in the end of June.
(with inputs from PTI)
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