NAGPUR: The BJP appears to have fared rather poorly in the gram panchayat elections in chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s home turf of Nagpur, but done relatively better in Bhandara and Gondia districts. The opposition claimed that BJP lost in Fetri village adopted by Fadnavis, as well as in Suradevi, adopted by Nagpur guardian minister Chandrakant Bawankule, and in ZP president Nisha Sawarkar’s native village of Dhanla.As counting of votes polled in gram panchayat elections in parts of Vidarbha took place on Tuesday, all three major political parties — BJP, Congress and NCP — claimed to have outdone the others.The panchayat elections are not contested on any party symbol, but by panels formed locally, and so there is no way to verify claims made by the parties on the winner’s affiliation. A BJP top functionary said the party had won 50% of the seats in Vidarbha.The otherwise low-profile village-level was significant and drew attention for the first time, because the sarpanch was elected directly by voters along with the other members. This was the second phase of the panchayat polls, and voting that took place on Monday for 3,666 seats in 18 districts across the state was marked by a high voter turnout of around 80%.In the first round too the BJP had claimed it had gained control of maximum gram panchayats. The claim was rejected by other parties, and state election commissioner JS Sahariya had gone on record to say that the polls were symbol-free and so no claim could be verified.While BJP’s Nagpur district chief Rajeev Potdar claimed his party had won 126 of the 237 sarpanch posts in the district, Congress Nagpur rural unit president Rajendra Mulak said the Congress won 93 seats and NCP 37, restricting the BJP to 91 seats, Sena to 6 and independents to 7 seats. The NCP claimed it won 41 of 49 panchayats in Katol-Narkhed area of the district.In Bhandara, the BJP claimed it won 60% seats — 211 of total 347 seats where elections were held. In Gondia, it claimed to have bagged 177 of 362 seats. The ruling party’s performance was very creditable there since dissident BJP MP from Bhandara-Gondia is reported to have kept away from the party campaign. The credit for the big win thus went to recently elected MLC from BJP Parinay Fuke.