IN elections held last month to a limited number of gram panchayats (GPs) whose five-year term of office were to mature in the month of June 2016, the CPI(M) won over 100 gram panchayats in its two main adivasi bastions of Nashik and Thane-Palghar districts with a clear majority. It also won four GPs in Nanded district in the two tehsils of Kinwat and Mahur, and one GP in the Taloda tehsil of Nandurbar district.

In these contests, the Party trounced the BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP and MNS, who fought either separately or in bizarrely opportunistic alliances. The CPI(M) put up independent panels of its own in all these gram panchayats.

In Nashik district, the Party won a total of 61 GPs in the five tehsils of Surgana, Peth, Kalwan, Dindori and Tryambakeshwar. The biggest victories were won in its old base of Surgana tehsil, in which all the 60 GPs in the tehsil went to the polls simultaneously. The Party won a clear majority in 40 of them. In the other tehsils, the number of GPs won was as follows: Peth – 7, Kalwan – 6, Tryambakeshwar – 5 and Dindori – 3.

In Thane-Palghar district, where the number of GP elections was less, the Party won a total of 36 gram panchayats in seven tehsils. The tehsil-wise number of GPs won was as follows: Talasari – 8, Dahanu – 6, Jawhar – 6, Vikramgad – 7, Wada – 7, Shahapur – 1, Palghar – 1.

Although the total number of GPs won by the Party in these two districts with a clear majority comes to 97, in some more villages, the CPI(M) is the largest single party and will be able to get its sarpanches (village pradhans) elected. The other welcome feature is that there are several other villages where, although the Party has not won the GPs, it has won many GP seats, in many of them for the first time.

Actually, since the terms of these GPs were maturing in June, the elections should have been held in the end of May. But this time, due to the AIKS-led statewide rally and siege in Nashik, for which hectic preparations were on, these elections were advanced to April 17 in a vain bid to disrupt that struggle. Not only that, but the first day of that struggle – March 29 – was also declared as the first day of filing nomination forms for these gram panchayat elections!

However, surmounting this real difficulty, the one lakh strong AIKS rally at Nashik was nevertheless a smashing success. Thousands of peasants had come from all the GPs going in for elections to this rally. And the great success of the AIKS rally and the massive publicity that it generated, in fact had a salutary effect on the campaign and the results of these GP elections!