Maharashtra Panchayat elections: Devendra Fadnavis claims BJP's big victory

Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis has said about the results of Panchayat elections that BJP has again become the "number one party" in Maharashtra. He congratulated the party workers. Devendra Fadnavis tweeted in Marathi- "BJP and Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Rao Shinde got a resounding success in the Gram Panchayat elections. BJP again became the No. 1 party. All the winning candidates and all our Maharashtra BJP workers, Hearty congratulations to the office bearers who made efforts for this success. After the latest results of the Gram Panchayat elections held in Maharashtra, both the ruling and opposition alliances have made claims of victory.

According to the information received, till late night, the results of a total of 494 gram panchayat elections had come. In these, candidates supported by the ruling coalition (BJP and Shiv Sena Shinde faction) have won 185 seats, while candidates supported by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi Alliance (MVA) have claimed to win 225 seats.

In these elections, BJP got 144 seats, while Shinde faction of ally Shiv Sena won 41 seats. The NCP has won 126 seats, the maximum in the opposition camp. Congress has won 62 seats, while Shiv Sena's Uddhav faction has won 37 seats. Others have won 84 seats.

However, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Monday claimed that 259 candidates backed by his party and 40 candidates backed by Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde faction won the sarpanch post in the recently held gram panchayat elections in the state.

Addressing a press conference, Bawankule said that 259 candidates backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been elected as sarpanch. The former minister further claimed that 40 candidates backed by the Shiv Sena faction, led by BJP ally Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, have also been elected as sarpanches.

Overall, more than 50 per cent of the newly elected sarpanches are supporters of the Shinde-BJP alliance, he said. Bawankule said, "The results of the gram panchayat elections today have reaffirmed the confidence in the Shinde-Fadnavis government of Maharashtra."

On Sunday, elections of 547-gram panchayats were voted on in 16 districts across the state, with 76 percent voting. These elections took place without parties. The votes were counted on Monday.