VIJAYAPURA: The gram panchayat elections took a curious turn in Babaleshwar village with a complete shutdown observed on Tuesday. Hundreds of anxious devotees and poll aspirants gathered at Shantaveer Mutt after its pontiff Mahadev Shivacharya Swami decided to leave the place for an undisclosed location.
Local leaders have been demanding town panchayat status for Babaleshwar, but their hopes were dashed after the government announced elections to the Babaleshwar gram panchayat, which has 32 seats.
Following this, local leaders approached Mahadev Shivacharya Swami seeking his intervention. They vowed before the seer not to file their nominations and said the village would boycott the elections.
The pontiff, who was said to be unwilling to be drawn into the issue, agreed that if it was for the development of the village, he would bless them. The decision to boycott the elections became a headache for the district administration and many district officials visited the village to prevail upon them not to boycott the polls.
But things started taking a different turn over the last two days after some people with affiliations to a political party started filing their nominations for the elections.
On Tuesday morning, after word spread that the pontiff had left, locals decided to voluntarily participate in a bandh. All business establishments were shut and the streets were deserted.
Hundreds of people, including women, gathered at Shantaveer Mutt demanding that the seer return.
The seers of Mamadapur and Managuli mutt too joined the locals.
Water Resources and district in-charge minister M B Patil told reporters in Vijayapura on Tuesday that he had tried to convince the seer regarding the technical problem in declaring the village a town panchayat now. He said that there are more than 140 such cases pending before the government and the population of the village needs to be taken into account in such matters.