Congress-NCP Nominee Wins Sarpanch Poll In Devendra Fadnavis's Adopted Village

In a setback to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in his adopted Fetri village in Nagpur, a woman candidate backed by Congress-NCP on Tuesday won the post of the village sarpanch in the gram panchayat election.

Dhanashree Dhomne of Congress-NCP alliance was elected as the sarpanch in Fetri village, adopted by the chief minister.

The BJP has won five seats out of nine seats in Fetri gram panchayat election.

In another setback for the BJP, Congress-backed candidate Sunil Dudhpachare was elected from Suradevi village in Koradi near Nagpur, adopted by state energy minister and Nagpur guardian minister Chandraskehar Bawankule.

Meanwhile, replying to query in Mumbai over sarpanch election, Mr Fadnavis said he has adopted four villages.

"I had told the people of these villages that it (adopting the village) was not my political agenda. Even during one of my rallies in one of the villages, I had told the villagers that they were free to choose their candidates," Mr Fadnavis said, speaking to reporters at his official residence 'Varsha' in the state capital.

Replying to further queries over BJP's show in the first round of gram panchayat polls, he said that all the BJP candidates, who won the gram panchayat polls, were purely party cadres.

Mr Fadnavis announced that next month the party will organise a conclave of BJP sarpanchs, wherein people will come to know the reality.