Maha: Preparations in check for Gram Panchayat polls on Jan 15

Over 14,000 Gram Panchayats in 34districts of Maharashtra will go to polls on January 15, withstate election commissioner UPS Madan saying all preparationsare in place for the elections.

There are 27,920 Gram Panchayats in Maharashtra andthe polls will cover 34 districts, barring Mumbai city andMumbai suburban.

Polling will take place between 7.30 am and 5.30 pm,except in four tehsils of Gadchiroli and Gondia districts,where voting will end at 3 pm.

''All preparations have been made and the teams are inplace,'' Madan said.

There 20,000-odd seats in the state where members havebeen elected unopposed, the official said.

Apart from this, 14 villages have boycotted the GramPanchayat elections to press for their demand to be a part ofthe Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, a Thane districtofficial said on Thursday.

With 14 villages boycotting the elections, five GramPanchayats in the district will not go to polls on Friday, theofficial said.

The State Election Commission had on Wednesday saidthat those suffering from coronavirus infection or people whoare quarantined can cast their vote half an hour before thepolling ends.

The body temperature of voters who are not sufferingfrom COVID-19, but are living in containment zones will bechecked twice, it was stated.

Voters whose body temperature is higher than theprescribed limit will be given tokens, and they can cast votehalf an hour before the polling ends, the Commission had said.

All the polling centres and material/equipment havebeen sanitised in view of the elections, the Commission said.

The Commission also announced on Wednesday that thepoll process has been cancelled for Umrane and Khondamali GramPanchayats in Nashik and Nandurbar districts respectively,after it received evidence of public auctioning of the postsof sarpanch and members of the local governing bodies.

The Gram Panchayat polls will be held in the wake ofthe MVA's victory in the Legislative Council elections for thegraduates' and teachers' constituencies that took place lastyear.

The MVA had won four out of six seats, while twoothers were bagged by an Independent candidate and the BJP.

According to political observers, the Gram Panchayatelection is being seen as a barometer to gauge the public moodin rural areas as well as the strength of the parties.

However, the Gram Panchayat politics is not always insync with that at the state level, they feel.

The district-wise tally of Gram Panchayats going topolls are as follows: Thane (158), Palghar (3), Raigad (88),Ratnagiri (479), Sindhudurg (70), Nashik (620), Dhule (218),Jalgaon (783), Ahmednagar (767), Nandurbar (86), Pune (748),Solapur (658), Satara (879), Sangli (152), Kolhapur (433),Aurangabad (618), Beed (129), Nanded (1,015), Osmanabad (428),Parbhani (566), Jalna (475), Latur (408), Hingoli (495),Amravati (553), Akola (225), Yavatmal (980), Washim (152),Buldhana (527), Nagpur (130), Wardha (50), Chandrapur (629),Bhandara (148), Gondia (189) and Gadchiroli (362).

Counting of votes will take place on January 18.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)