nagpur Cong-NCP fare well in panchayat polls

 Congress and NCP have managed to give an impressive performance in the gram panchayat elections held in Nagpur district on Sunday. Results for 31 gram panchayats in the district were declared on Tuesday. These elections are not contested on party lines and major political parties leave it to their grass-root workers to have their say in forming local level alliances to gain control.

However, senior party leaders do keep an eye on the village level elections to consolidate their grip on future polls. NCP minister Anil Deshmukh has complete control over Katol and Narkhed. As a result, more than 90% of his men won the seats. Similarly, in Saoner, Congress MLA Sunil Kedar's grass-root workers performed well. Sources in the district election office said that of the 31 gram panchayats, elections for 13 gram panchayat samitis were held in Nagpur rural, 10 in Saoner, five in Kalmeshwar and three in Katol.

Congress workers from Saoner claimed that of the 117 seats in the area, 72 candidates from Kedar camp turned out to be victorious. In Nagpur rural, the elections were held for 147 seats in 13 gram panchayats. A total of 576 candidates from Nagpur rural contested for 9 seats in Dhamna (Linga); seven each in Petkaldongri, Durgdhamna and Suraburdi; 17 each in Daolamethi, Wadi, Sonegao Nipani and Narsala; 13 in Bahadura; 9 each in Pajri Burj, Dongargaon, Bothli and Kapsi Khurd. Elections for over 1,800 gram panchayat seats will be conducted across Vidarbha on August 22.

Of these seats, elections for 103 gram panchayat seats will be conducted in Nagpur district. Political analysts said that the Congress and NCP fared well in these elections after suffering humiliating defeats in Bhandara and Gondia zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections at the hands of BJP and Shiv Sena candidates. In the forthcoming gram panchayat elections, it would be a neck to neck contest for both the parties.