Mumbai: The BJP’s efforts to claim an increased rural support base has turned this year’s gram panchayat elections into a major political event. The local-level polls have traditionally been removed from the glamour of big politics.
Gram panchayat polls are never contested on a party symbol, but such was the BJP’s frenzied chest-thumping that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Maharashtra BJP team for its ‘impressive’ victory in these polls. In an attempt to claim mass support, State BJP leaders have been claiming that the party won 1,792 gram panchayats of the 3,497 that went to the polls. It discredited other parties and claimed that others could not even win one-third of the gram panchayats it won.
To counter the BJP, other parties too have claimed resounding success in these elections. Congress spokesperson Raju Waghmare on Tuesday said that his party has surpassed the BJP’s tally, pushing the ruling party to third place. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders too have been claiming success, while the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana claimed the Sena had received unprecedented support in these elections.
Interestingly, the State Election Commission has not seconded these claims; rather, it has clarified that party-wise data would not be available in this case since elections were not fought on party symbols. In the first phase, elections were held in 3,131 gram panchayats. The elections were crucial for the BJP as they were the first after the BJP-led State government decided to elect the sarpanch from among the voters.
“Even though the polls were not fought on symbols, our activists have won and hence we can claim that the BJP has won the elections,” Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said. He expressed confidence that similar success will be achieved in the second phase of the elections.
Satyajit Tambe-Patil, vice-president, Maharashtra Youth Congress, said, “The BJP, which till now was limited to urban areas, wants to claim it has spread to rural areas as well. However, its claims are ridiculous; only a person who doesn’t understand how a gram panchayat poll is held can believe such claims.”
