Maharashtra's rival coalitions, the ruling Eknath Shinde-BJP alliance and the ousted Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have both claimed victory in Gram Panchayat elections held two days ago, reports ndtv.com

While Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP has become the "number 1 party" in Maharashtra again, NCP's Ajit Pawar claimed the MVA has won most seats.

BJP's Maharashtra unit president Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Monday claimed 259 candidates supported by his party and 40 nominees backed by the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena have been elected as sarpanches in the just-held elections to gram panchayats in the state.

Voting for elections to 547 gram panchayats spread across 16 districts of the state was held on Sunday and 76 per cent turnout was reported.

The elections were held on non-party basis and the counting of votes was taken up on Monday. Besides elections to gram panchayats, direct polls for the post of village sarpanches were also held.

Mr Bawankule, addressing a press conference here, said 259 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-supported candidates have been elected as sarpanches.

The former minister further claimed said 40 nominees backed by the Shiv Sena faction headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, an ally of the BJP, have also been elected as sarpanches.

In all, more than 50 per cent of the newly-elected sarpanches are supporters of the Shinde-BJP alliance, he said.

"Gram panchayat results today have confirmed Maharashtra's faith in the Shinde-Fadnavis government," Mr Bawankule said.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis is the deputy chief minister in the Shinde-led government which took office in June-end.

Mr Shinde, along with 39 other MLAs, walked out of the Shiv Sena in June after raising a banner of revolt agianst the leadership of party president Uddhav Thackeray.

The opposition MVA, comprising the Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, presented different figures.

Till late night, said leaders of the alliance, results of 494 Gram Panchayat elections were out.

According to them, the BJP has won 144 seats, NCP has won 126 seats, the Congress has won 62 seats, the Shinde Sena has won 41 and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena has won 37.

By the MVA's count, therefore, it has won 225 of 494 seats while the Eknath Shinde-BJP alliance has won 185 seats.

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar stressed that the rural polls are not contested on party symbols.

"Some are saying they are on number one, number two... reality is these elections are not fought on political symbols. If a sarpanch writes and says that I support this party, then it's a different thing. As per the numbers you are showing, MVA has the highest seats. But I will repeat that these elections are not fought on political parties symbols," he said.

Asked about Mr Fadnavis' claim that the BJP-Shinde camp alliance has won 300 seats, Mr Pawar said, "If he is saying they have won 300 seats, I will claim I have won 400."