In what could be seen as an embarrassment for Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a candidate backed by the Congress and NCP on Tuesday wrested the seat of sarpanch (village head) from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Fetri, in Nagpur district, is the adopted village of the Chief Minister.
The BJP managed to win five out of total 10 seats of the Fetri Gram Panchayat but failed to win the post of sarpanch.
The Congress-NCP supported Dhanashri Mukesh Dhomne defeated the BJP’s Jyoti Bhimrao Raut by 85 votes.
‘Victory of local people’
“This is the local people’s win. The BJP representatives and the former BJP sarpanch were behaving authoritatively after the CM adopted the village. Today’s verdict was against the feudalistic set-up of the ruling party in the village,” Ms. Dhomne told The Hindu.
When asked if the verdict was the “anger” of the people of the village against the CM, Ms. Dhomne said that the villagers were happy that the CM had adopted their village.
“The CM released the funds and gave many schemes to the village, however, the local BJP people here did not let it reflect on the ground. Most of the development in the village was focused on the BJP candidate and the sarpanch’s ward which is why the people of Fetri have defeated the party candidate. I will make sure that there is no disparity in the development of any particular ward. I will develop the overall village,” she added.
“The BJP used all its strength and money power to win this seat. It was a direct fight between the Congress-NCP and the BJP. We fought democratically and with modest means. They even tried to defame the husband of our sarpanch candidate by spreading lies about him; but in the end, truth prevailed. It was a victory of the truth,” Rahul Shashtri, a villager and a Congress supporter said.
Another villager Vakil Dongre said the village had not seen the expected development after the CM adopted it.
Earlier this year, The Hindu had done a detailed story on how the village lacked even in basic amenities despite being the CM’s adopted village.
The husband of the defeated BJP candidate Bhimrao Raut claimed that his wife gave a tough fight to the Congress-NCP alliance candidate.
“There was 100 % development of the village. The CM gave everything to the village. We lost because the Congress and NCP united to defeat us,” Mr. Raut claimed.
The BJP also lost the seat of sarpanch in the State energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule's adopted village Suradevi.
