Results of Maha Gram Panchayat polls in favour of MVA: Dy CM

Results of Gram Panchayat electionsin Maharashtra on Monday are good and in favour of the MahaVikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, deputyChief Minister Ajit Pawar said.

Speaking to reporters here, Pawar said the overall(political) picture in Maharashtra seems to be changing postthe results of Legislative Council elections held last year.

Of the six Legislative Council seats for whichelections were held in December last year, the BJP won onlyone while the rest constituencies were bagged by candidates ofthe ruling MVA.

Polling for elections to over 14,000 gram panchayats,out of the total 27,920 gram panchayats in Maharashtra, washeld in 34 of the total 36 districts on January 15.

''As per inputs, the results of Gram Panchayatelections are good and are in favour of the MVA. Party workersof the Congress, Sena and NCP have clinched the victory. Inmost of these places, the Congress, NCP and Sena retainedseats in their respective strongholds. I congratulate allthese members for this success,'' Pawar said.

Though the village panchayat elections are not foughton party symbols, panels are fielded by political parties orlocal leaders.

Pawar reiterated that the MVA government was runningon the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) under the leadership ofChief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

When asked about the Sena's demand for renamingAurangabad city as Sambhajinagar and opposition by theCongress, Pawar said that any difference of opinions among thethree constituents will be ironed out by their leaders.

''There may be a difference of opinion but we (MVApartners) have come together on the CMP. The MVA governmenthas been running on the basis of the CMP under CM Thackeraysince the last one year and will continue to run in future aswell,'' he said.

Pawar also criticised the Central government over theongoing agitation by farmers on borders of Delhi for therepeal of three agri laws.

''The Centre should understand that farmers areagitating for long. Several rounds of discussions (betweenfarmers and the government) have failed. The Centre is nottaking any concrete steps which shows that it doesn't have anyinterest in resolving the issues of farmers, which amounts toinsulting farmers,'' he said.