Post governor snub, Maharashtra plans bill on sarpanch election

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra will bring a new bill in the upcoming Maharashtra budget session to scrap a provision that allowed sarpanchs to be elected directly from among the people of the village after Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari refused to sign the ordinance passed by the Uddhav Thackeray.

On January 27, the state government cancelled a move of the earlier BJP-Sena regime that allowed sarpanches to be directly elected from the people. Governor Koshyari has however refused to clear the ordinance asking the state government to bring in a bill in the assembly instead of clearing it as an ordinance.

Gram panchayat minister Hasan Mushrif said the state would bring a bill on scrapping direct elections of sarpanchs from the people in the budget sessions itself.


There has been no official reaction from the government as yet on the reasons for Koshyari’s move, Water resources minister Jayant Patil told reporters that ‘it is not appropriate to comment on the Governor’s decisions.’ The Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena, which was then an ally of the BJP government, had opposed the move. The three parties now in government said it allowed the BJP to come to power in these gram panchayats through the village heads as the BJP has a better electoral network that allowed the sarpanch of their choice to be elected.