Cong wins 23 of 68 seats in four nagar panchayats in Latur district

The Congress on Wednesday won 23 of the 68 seats on offer in four nagar panchayats of Latur district, while the NCP and the BJP bagged 14 each, election officials said.

In Latur district, voting was held for 68 seats in four nagar panchayats (17 seats each) - Chakur, Shiroor Anantpal, Jalkot and Deoni - last month and counting was taken up on Wednesday. The Congress won a majority of seats in two of them, Jalkot and Deoni. Nagar panchayats are local self-government bodies for small towns.

In Chakur, out of 17 seats on offer, eight were bagged by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (consisting of Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena), six by the Prahar Janshakti Paksh and three by the BJP, the officials said.

In Shiroor Anantpal, the BJP won 9 seats, the NCP 4, the Shiv Sena 3 and the Congress one. In Jalkot, the Congress won 7 seats, the NCP 4, the Shiv Sena 2, the BJP 1, while 3 seats were bagged by independent candidates. In Deoni, the Congress won 12 seats, the NCP 2, the BJP 1 and independent candidates bagged 2.

Overall, the Congress won 23 seats, followed by the NCP and the BJP 14 seats each, the Shiv Sena 6, while 11 seats went to independent candidates and others. In Beed district, the BJP won a majority of seats in three nagar panchayats - Ashi, Patoda, Shirur Kasar, while the NCP prevailed in one - Wadvani Nagar.

In all, the BJP won 48 out of 85 seats spread across four nagar panchayats in Beed district. The Supreme Court on December 6 stayed till further orders the local body elections in Maharashtra on seats reserved for the OBCs. The apex court later directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to notify 27 per cent of seats in the local bodies, which were reserved for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), as general category ones so that the poll process can be taken forward.