Kasba Beed, a village in Kolhapur, passed a no-confidence motion against its sarpanch belonging to the Shiv Sena. Uttam Varute, the sarpanch elected in 2023, was removed from his post in the motion passed on Thursday. Of the eleven gram panchayat members, 10 were from Congress while one was elected on a Shiv Sena ticket. They brought about the no-confidence motion due to dissatisfaction with the work of the sarpanch, with the lone Shiv Sena member also recently joining the Congress.
The Maharashtra Village Panchayats (Amendment) Act, 2022 allows for the gram panchayat to remove the sarpanch by passing a motion of no-confidence, which has to be initiated by three-fourth of the members. The motion then has to be ratified by the Gram Sabha. This motion can only be bought in after the sarpanch completes two years in office.
The act reads, “After the motion of no-confidence against the directly elected Sarpanch is carried by a majority of not less than three-fourth of the total number of the members, who are for the time being entitled to sit and vote at any meeting of the panchayat, then the same shall be ratified by the Gram Sabha, in
Varute, however, said that he was removed without any reason and he made all decisions with consensus. “Without any reason they have removed me as the Sarpanch. I have not indulged in any corruption or anything like that. I have taken all members along and given work to everybody. They have never even opposed me before this. They are making the allegations now but they did not oppose me before this. I am not opposed to this law that allows for the Sarpanch to be removed but this has been used unjustly before me. I will contest the election again,” he said.
Mukund Patil, a resident of the village, said, “When elections were held for the public to vote, there were two symbols — a circle for those in favour of the no-confidence and a triangle to reject it. There are 5,000 people in the village, of whom 3,200 are eligible to vote. A total of 1763 voters turned up. Those who wanted to vote would had to register between 8 and 11 am. Then, voting took place between 11 am and 4 pm. This wasn’t EVM but the old-style ballot paper. When the results were declared, it was found that 1022 were in favour of the no-confidence.”
