Mumbai, Dec 20 (PTI) A panel led by the daughter of Gujarat BJP president C R Paatil on Tuesday lost the Gram Panchayat election from Jalgaon district of Maharashtra to a panel comprising members of a local BJP faction.
The Gramvikas panel of Paatil’s daughter Bhavini Paatil lost seven out of ten seats it had contested in the gram panchayat election from Mohadi village in Jamner taluka to the panel of local BJP faction led by Sharad Patil, who is believed to be a loyalist of state minister Girish Mahajan.
Bhavini is one of the three candidates on her panel who won the election.
In another jolt, the candidate for the post of Sarpanch backed by Bhavini’s panel also lost to the nominee of Sharad Patil’s Lokshahi Unnati panel.
Notably, the Gram Panchayat elections are not contested on the party affiliations.
Bhavini had previously served as Sarpanch of Mohadi village. But the post became reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC) category this time.
“Our victory means a triumph of people’s will over money power. Her (Bhavini’s) tenure as Sarpanch was not very good and people were unhappy with her performance,” Sharad Patil said when asked about the poll outcome.
C R Patil has roots in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra.
Voting for 7,682 Gram Panchayats was held on December 18. The results were declared on Tuesday.
The ruling BJP and other parties on Tuesday separately claimed to have won maximum Gram Panchayats in Maharashtra in the maiden local body polls conducted after the alliance government led by Eknath Shinde came to power in June this year.
Similar claims of victory were made by the faction led by Chief Minister Shinde, Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, the Congress, and the Uddhav Thackeray faction, even though the elections were not contested as per party affiliations. PTI ND NSK NSK
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