MUMBAI: Even as all the results for the gram panchayat elections in Maharashtra were still to come in till late Tuesday evening, claims and counterclaims by the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the BJP on the outcome continued, with all parties barring the BJP admitting that the Shiv Sena had emerged victorious in a majority of the gram panchayats.
While the Sena claimed it had won 3,113 gram panchayats out of a total of 12,711, the BJP maintained that it was the biggest party, having registered wins in 5,781.
Sena spokesperson Harshal Pradhan said the party had won in 3,113 gram panchayats, followed by the BJP (2,632), NCP (2,400) and the Congress (1,823). In the 2017 gram panchayat elections, the Sena had won only 637 gram panchayats out of 7,590 that had then gone to the polls.
However, the BJP countered this, with its spokesperson Keshav Upadhye contending that it had won 5,781 gram panchayats. “We have secured 45.48% of votes polled,” Upadhye said. If his claim is to be believed, then this performance would be better than what the BJP recorded in the 2017 gram panchayat elections, when out of 7,590 gram panchayats, it had won 3,095. “Compared to 2017, our polling percentage has increased manifold,” he said.
There were no takers for the BJP’s claims. The gram panchayat elections are not contested on party symbols and all the candidates are considered independents. “The BJP’s claims are misleading. State BJP president Chandrakant Patil had on Monday claimed that the party had won in 6,000 gram panchayats, while on Wednesday, the BJP itself has lowered the figures. It must admit that it has been defeated across the state. I will request BJP leaders not to mislead the people but to accept defeat,” state Congress president and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat said.
The Congress, too, came out with its own data, saying it had won 2,513 gram panchayats, while the Sena had won 3,108, BJP 2,263 and NCP 2,399.
But while Sena’s Pradhan claimed that independents had won more gram panchayats than the Congress, a Congress leader said that Pradhan’s contention that the party had been relegated to the fourth position was wrong and unrealistic. “Since these elections are not contested on party symbols, it would be wrong to put up imaginary figures. We may not be leading in gram panchayat polls, but we have not been relegated to the fourth position. This claim is an attempt to defame the Congress,” the leader said.
The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi has claimed that it has swept the gram panchayat polls, which were held in 34 out of the state’s 36 districts.