At This Panchayat In Delwada, Woman Defeats Mother-In-Law For Sarpanch Seat

The Delwada panchayat in Gir Somnath, Gujarat saw an extraordinary poll result for the top seat of sarpanch late Tuesday evening, with a woman defeating her own mother-in-law to claim victory. The fight for power was within the family, with only the two women emerging as the primary contenders for the position of sarpanch. What's more, the outgoing sarpanch is the woman's husband.

Pooja Bambhaniya won by 1177 votes after over 5000 residents partook in the polls on Sunday. "I don’t see this as a political war in our family," she told Indian Express, citing the battle against "anti-social" outsiders allegedly threatening the villagers as more important.

The sarpanch seat has been retained by the Bambhaniya family for years now, with Pooja's mother-in-law Jiviben having held the role from 2006 to 2011, which is when her son Vijay succeeded her.

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Though Pooja's husband is reportedly affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), panchayat polls consider individual elections and not party tickets.

As per the State Election Commission, out of 1.81 crore eligible voters, 1.42 crore exercised their franchise in Gujarat's local polls. By Tuesday night, the results of 6481 out of 8686 panchayats had been declared.

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A second extraordinary story that came out of the Gujarat gram panchayat polls was that of Aeshra Patel, a supermodel who contested the elections from her native village of Kavitha in Chhota Udepur. While she lost to the sitting deputy sarpanch by almost 100 votes, her candidature made headlines.

The 33-year-old was born into a family of farmers and from participating in local fashion pageants, moved to Mumbai to fulfil her modelling dreams. She is a known face, having appeared in multiple television commercials and walked the ramp for top designer brands.