BJP wins Assam panchayat polls with 42% seats

Guwahati, Dec. 21 (PTI): The ruling BJP in Assam Friday emerged as the single largest party in the three-tier panchayat elections by bagging 42 per cent of the total seats, while Congress came second securing 34 per cent, the Assam State Election Commission (ASEC) said. The BJP bagged 11,325 out of a total 26,784 posts, counting of which began on December 12 across Assam, the ASEC said in a statement after conclusion of the counting process. The Congress has won a total of 8,970 posts, followed by Independents winning 3,048 seats, which is 11 per cent of the total seats. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a constituent of the ruling alliance that contested separately, came fourth winning 1,963 posts while another opposition AIUDF bagged 1,319 posts. The two parties secured seven and five per cent of the total seats respectively, the ASEC statement said. Out of the total posts, 21,970 are for gaon panchayat members (GPM), 2,197 each for gaon panchayat presidents (GPP) and anchalik panchayat members (APM), and 420 are zilla parishad members (ZPM). No nominations were received in 52 GPM seats and by-elections will take place later in coming days to fill-up those posts, the ASEC said. In GPM, the BJP has bagged 9,094, followed by the Congress (7,292), the AGP (1,689) and the AIUDF (1,024). The other seats were captured by the Bodoland People's Front (54), the CPI(M) (33), the CPI (3), the TMC (5), the CPI(ML) (4), the NCP (3) and Independents (2,717). For the GPP posts, the BJP won in 994, Congress in 760, the AGP in 137 and the AIUDF in 130. The BPF bagged 2 seats, NCP one and Independents 173. In the APM seats, BJP bagged 1,025, while 771 were won by the Congress, 118 by the AGP, 136 by the AIUDF, one by both the CPI(M) and the TMC and 142 by Independents. The ASEC said in ZPM constituencies, the BJP won 212 seats, the Congress 147, the AGP 19, the AIUDF 26 and Independents 16. The elections were held on December 5 and 9 recording an overall voting of over 82 per cent. While there were 78,571 contestants in total, 734 were elected uncontested.