Three villages boycott local body polls in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Local government elections at the district and village levels in Maharashtra began yesterday with nearly 65 per cent of 38.9 million voters in the state getting a chance to exercise their franchise. The counting of votes will be taken up on February 17.

In all, 7,116 candidates were in the fray for 27 zilla parishads, or district councils, and 13,472 candidates were contesting in 309 panchayat samitis, or village councils, across the state.

Polling was generally peaceful except for stray incidents of violence and political leaders accusing each other of using money power to influence results of the vote. However, three villages boycotted the elections to highlight the failure of their respective local bodies to provide public bus services to their villages.

Sensitive areas

The State Election Commission has made arrangements for 59,914 polling booths, with 7,000 being marked out as sensitive locations. Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place especially in Gadchiroli district. Hit hard by a Maoist insurgency, polling in the district is being held in two phases — the next stage is scheduled for Sunday.

With most of the 27 district councils being controlled by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — the Congress has 13, NCP 10, Sena 2, BJP 1 and Peasants and Workers Party 1, the fight once again is between the two ruling partners across the state.

The tussle over rural Maharashtra is important because both the Congress and the NCP control the co-operative banking sector.

The Congress and NCP are fighting together only in the municipal corporations of Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Akola and Ulhasnagar.