Mumbai: The second round of gram panchayat elections witnessed some interesting trends, with Fetari village in Nagpur, which was adopted by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, electing a sarpanch belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Similarly, power minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s adopted village Suraadevi elected a panel belonging to the Congress and NCP. 

“I have told them to go with any party in election. I keep development of the village in mind and not politics,” Mr Fadnavis said reacting to his party losing in his adopted village. However, the NCP spokesperson taunted Mr Fadnavis over his comment, quipping, “It is a very interesting claim. People seems to have no faith on CM’s development model.” 

The second round of gram panchayat elections saw polls being held in 3,600 villages. Till the end of the day, political parties claimed results of almost 2,000 villages. Party symbols are not allowed to be used in these elections. As a result, all parties made competing claims over the results. 

The BJP claimed 998 wins out of the 1,400 villages for which results were announced till the evening. According to Mr Fadnavis, till Tuesday afternoon, out 668 gram panchayats, 374 were won by the BJP. “Almost 55 per cent of the elections have won by BJP alone. This shows people are still with us,” said Mr Fadnavis. 

But Congress termed it a BJP attempt to portray the wrong picture before the public. “Congress workers are winning in large number in Vidarbha and Marathwada particularly. (A total of) 827 villages have elected Congress sarpanch out of 2,000 villages declared till the evening,” claimed party spokesperson Raju Waghmare. 

Interestingly, the BJP had to face defeat in two villages, which are adopted by its senior leaders. While Fetari village 

elected NCP’s Dhanashri Dhomane, Suradevi village in Nagpur, which is adopted by Mr Bawan-kule, elected a Congress member as sarpanch.