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Government And Administration

As is the norm in all Indian states, Governor is the state’s head who is appointed under the union government. This post of the governor is primarily ceremonial. Government head is the chief minister and executive decisions are provided to this position. Legislature of Maharashtra is of bicameral nature, which is found only in few states in India. Lower house or Vidhan Sabha has members who are elected directly and this is also known as legislative assembly. Vidhan sabha members are responsible for selecting the Chief Minister. Legislative council is the upper house or Vidhan Parishad, the members of which are elected by voting from a specific electoral college. In Rajya Sabha, Maharashtra has representation in 14 seats and in 48 seats in Lok Sabha, which is the parliament of India.

Government of Maharashtra caters to the Maharashtra state located in western side of India. This government comprises of about 288 MLAs in the legislative assembly for 5 years in a single term. There are two legislative houses in Maharashtra, making it a bicameral government with Vidhan Parishad and Vidhan Sabha.

Mumbai, which is the capital of Maharashtra, is having the Vidhan Sabha, as well as Mantralaya and state assembly buildings, various government offices of administration. Two sessions of the legislature are convened from time to time, for the monsoon and budget discussions, while the city of Nagpur hosts the session during winter, this city being the auxiliary government capital.

Post Independence

Indian National Congress had a major influence and domination over the politics of Maharashtra’s history after India got its independence. It was supposedly an area for congress, from where many well known personalities came such as Y.B. Chavan, who is in present day, considered as a great chief minister of the state. Dr. Gopalrao Khedkar was the first Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president. This party had major dominance on the political scenario of the state till the year 1995, beyond which Shiv Sena, with right wing ideologies and Bhartiya Janata Party or BJP had put in strong majority by coalition politics in the state. Later, when the Congress party was split, Sharad Pawar, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra established the Nationalist Congress Party or NCP and strategized to go along with Congress, so that the Shiv Sena and BJP combination could be kept out of power. In the elections of 2004, the NCP gained majority of the votes in the state, securing the highest number of seats and much of the base of Shiv Sena was eroded. In the recent year, after 2009, a few newer parties have come up in the scenario, such as the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, under the leadership of Raj Thackeray, with the slogan of sons of the soil, after Raj cut off his links with Shiv Sena.

Urban Local Administration

The local urban locality government is divided into municipal council and Municipal Corporation.

Municipal Corporations

City areas with large population are under the municipal corporations or simply known as corporations. Inside the corporations, the area is divided into smaller portions and known as wards. Ward committees can be found in some areas within the corporations, which are small collections of few wards and look after their own administration.

Presently, Maharashtra is having about 26 corporations:

  • Mumbai
  • Thane
  • Mira-Bhayandar
  • Navi Mumbai
  • Kalyan-Dombivli
  • Ulhasnagar
  • Bhiwandi-Nizampur
  • Vasai-Virar
  • Pune
  • Pimpri-Chinchwad
  • Kolhapur
  • Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad
  • Solapur
  • Ahmednagar
  • Nashik
  • Malegaon
  • Jalgaon
  • Dhule
  • Aurangabad
  • Nanded-Waghala
  • Parbhani city
  • Latur
  • Akola
  • Amravati
  • Nagpur
  • Chandrapur

Municipal Councils

Municipal councils are present for smaller township areas for governance, which are also known by names such as municipalities or Municipal boards. Such municipalities are then segregated into different wards and the ward councils are formed by bringing together a few wards. Each ward is having representation in the council by the corporates. In total, about 222 municipalities are found in Maharashtra.

Rural Local Administration

Panchayati Raj system is the basis of governance in rural India. This system works in three tiers, where the districts have Zila Parishad, lowest level administration is by village council, while the blocks are responsible for middle level administration.

Zila Parishad

At the level of the district, there is Zila Parishad known as ZP, which is a government organization responsible for administrative control of the village areas inside the district, with its office present in the city which serves as the headquarters of the district.

Since there are 33 districts in Maharashtra, there are equal numbers of zila parishads in the entire state.

Panchayat Samiti

Panchayat Samiti is found at the taluka or Tehsil level, which is the administrative body of the government, which has the development block under their control comprising of various villages inside the tehsil limits. This body also works as a link between zila parishad and gram panchayat.

In Maharashtra, presently there are about 355 block panchayats or panchayat samitis.

Gram Panchayat

At the village levels, the local bodies for administration under government are the gram panchayats.

Gram panchayat is considered to be the basis of the panchayat system in India. Gram panchayat is established in villages, which have population above five hundred. Sometimes, there is one gram panchayat serving more than two or even more number of villages, if each village is populated by less than five hundred people. Such bodies are known as group gram panchayats.

In the state of Maharashtra, there are about 28813 numbers of gram panchayats.

Elections

State election commission of Maharashtra looks into the conduct of elections in various bodies of governance once in five years.

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