Maharashtra gram panchayat elections: Shinde camp delivers jolt to Uddhav faction in Aurangabad 

Following his intra-party rebellion that spilt the Shiv Sena wide apart, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction gave a further jolt to the Uddhav Thackeray camp in Aurangabad in the gram panchayat results declared on Sunday.

In Aurangabad, the bastion of the Uddhav camp (the Sena dominates the civic body), 10 of the 15 gram panchayats were snared by the Shinde group with the former winning just one.   

Of all districts, the taluks in Aurangabad had turned into a prestige fight between the two rival camps since Mr. Shinde took over as Chief Minister on June 30 after his revolt toppled the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA.  

The GPs in the Wadgaon-Kolhati and Paithan areas of Aurangabad saw the influence of rebel Sena MLAs Sanjay Shirsat and Sandipan Bhumre, proving that the rebels had not lost their clout on ground despite breaking away from the MVA to join the BJP.

The National Congress Party (NCP), meanwhile clearly dominated the proceedings in Pune district winning 11 of the 19 GPs, with the BJP managing just two.

As with all local body elections, political expediency saw strange bedfellows as the BJP allied with the NCP in Parbhani, while the Shinde camp fought against the BJP in some taluks.

Jalgaon saw the BJP come on top, winning six of the 24 GPs with the Uddhav camp winning a creditable five. The NCP and Congress, too, scored five wins each while the Shinde camp performed dismally, failing to win a single GP.

Likewise, the BJP dominated the proceedings in Nashik and Solapur as well, winning on 15 of the 40 GPs in the former and nine of the 25 GPs in the latter district.

Voting was held in 271 GPs in 62 talukas of Maharashtra on Thursday.

Districts that went to polls include Nashik (40 gram panchayats), Dhule (52), Jalgaon (24), Ahmednagar (15), Pune (19), Solapur (25), Satara (10), Sangli (1), Aurangabad (16), Jalna (28), Beed(13), Latur (9), Osmanabad (11), Parbhani (3) and Buldhana (5).