A Congress-backed panel has won the panchayat elections in Ahmednagar district’s Puntamba village, ousting the BJP-backed panel that was earlier in charge. It was in Puntamba, in Rahata taluka, that the idea of a state-wide farmers’ strike was born last year.
In April 2017, a Gram Sabha resolution, calling for a farmers’ strike in Maharashtra, was passed in Puntamba. Soon, the idea captured the imagination of the state’s rural heartland, culminating in an unprecedented strike in the first week of June last year, to demand a loan waiver as well as better prices for agricultural commodities.
The gram panchayat of the village was dominated by a BJP-backed panel, with 12 of the 17 members affiliated with the BJP.
In the recently-held elections, Dr Dhanjay Dhanvate, a Congress supporter, was elected as the sarpanch of Puntamba, while 11 of the 14 panchayat members are candidates backed by the Congress. Dr Dhanvate, a close confidant of former state agriculture minister Radhakrushan Vikhe Patil, said the victory “belonged to the people who have decided to support honest politicians”.
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