Ajit wins Baramati for 8th time by over 1 lakh votes, says ‘hurt by Pratibha kaki campaigning against me’

At the concluding day rally at Lendhi Patti ground in Baramati city, Pratibha Pawar had herself turned up and was seen carrying a board with words written in Marathi, highlighting that “wherever the old man goes, something good happens”.

Though the Sharad Pawar family believed that it wold be a close fight, Ajit defeated his own nephew Yugendra Pawar by a margin of over one lakh votes.

Ajit Pawar, the national president of NCP, won Baramati seat for an eighth consecutive time, securing 1,81,132 votes. Yugendra had to remain content with 80,233 votes.

When there were murmurs that Yugendra would be fielded by Sharad Pawar’s NCP against him, Ajit Pawar announced he may not contest and that his younger son, Jay Pawar, would do so instead from Baramati. However, the NCP persuaded him. “Ajit Pawar will contest the assembly polls and only from Baramati. He will lead the party from the front on the poll turf,” Sunil Tatkare, State president of NCP, had told this paper.

On Saturday, when he was asked what advice he would like to give his nephew, Ajit Pawar refused to comment.

However, Yugendra’s aunt Supriya Sule, who is Baramati MP, said her nephew had just entered the poll turf and has a long way to go. “He not only fought bravely against none other than the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, but also brought the defeat margin down compared to the last elections. In the the 2019 assembly elections, Ajit Pawar had won the Baramati seat by over 1.67 lakh votes. This time, the margin reduced by around 50,000 votes. For a first timer like Yugendra, it was still an achievement in itself. He put up a courageous fight and went to every nook and corner of Baramati. He explained his vision and his plans for pushing the development of Baramati forward,” she said.

Speaking in Baramati, Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar said, “People of Baramati have reposed their faith in Ajit Pawar because of the development work that he has carried out… I want to thank the people of Baramati for extending their support to Ajit dada. This is the victory of the people of Baramati… I want the same (Ajit Pawar to be CM) as the public wants…”

A day before vote counting, both Yugendra and Sule were expecting it would be a close fight, which ultimately proved to be otherwise.

Unlike the Lok Sabha elections where he targeted his cousin Supriya Sule as a non-performing MP for 15 years, this time Ajit Pawar avoided targeting his opponent and nephew Yugendra. “I had purposely decided not to criticise anyone, instead I decided to highlight my development work,” Ajit Pawar said. His criticism of his own cousin Supriya Sule during the Lok Sabha election had drawn wide ridicule for him from different quarters,

After he fielded his wife from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat against Sule and went all out to defeat her with the help of BJP and Shiv Sena, the Sharad Pawar camp had hit back at Ajit Pawar by fielding a rookie Yugendra Pawar against him.

A majority of the Pawar family members campaigned for Yugendra including Pratibha Pawar. Yugendra himself said though he was knew to poll turf, he was already in touch with voters of Baramati. “I have been going around Baramati and I am well aware of the problems they are facing. Be it jobs or water shortage, Baramatikars are also grappling with numerous issues. I would like to address them all,” he had said during campaigning.