Elections not required at Satara's 148 grampanchayats

KOLHAPUR: As many as 148 grampanchayats out of 711 in Satara district managed to elect their governing bodies unopposed. The remaining 571 grampanchayats witnessed a tough contest.
The district is dominated by various factions of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party. Both the parties have tried to hard to retain power at the same time snatch the control from the ruling panels in bodies where they did not dominate.
Out of 41 grampanchayats in Satara tehsil, 13 had unopposed election of governing body. The villagers gathered at a community hall or temple and after discussions, a governing body was elected with a common agenda for the village. Interestingly, in Satara tehsil remaining grampanchayats had a straight fight as local factions tried to avoid division of votes. While in Koregaon tehsil, 10 out of 49 bodies elected their new panels unopposed. In Jawlin tehsil elections were not required in 33 out of 56 grampanchayats. Patan tehsil is had 32 out of 95 villages unaninmously choose governing bodies.
While many villages are going for unanimous selection of new bodies, Undale village broke its 52 year old tradition of choosing its body without any opposition.