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From record landslides to 55-vote thrillers: The breakdown of BJP’s dominance in Pune’s civic polls

In the PMC elections held on January 15, the BJP notched up 119 seats out of 165, while the NCP, led by Ajit Pawar, was relegated to the second position.

Written by: Express News Service

3 min readJan 18, 2026 07:56 PM IST

Bapu Mankar, who won from ward number 25(b), defeating Sameer Gaikwad of Shivsena (UBT) by a staggering margin of 26,497 votes. (Express)

The recently held Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections saw some high drama moments as some candidates scraped through the thinnest of margins, while some managed comfortable wins. Raghavendra alias Bapu Deepak Mankar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieved a remarkable victory by securing the highest margin of votes.

Mankar won from ward number 25(b), defeating Sameer Gaikwad of Shivsena (UBT) by a staggering margin of 26,497 votes. He received 31,981 votes, while Gaikwad garnered only 5,484 votes. Notably, all four BJP candidates from ward 25 (Shaniwar Peth–Mahatma Phule Mandai) also emerged victorious.

Bapu Mankar, who won from ward number 25(b), defeating Sameer Gaikwad of Shivsena (UBT) by a staggering margin of 26,497 votes.

In the PMC elections held on January 15, the BJP notched up 119 seats out of 165, while the NCP, led by Ajit Pawar, was relegated to the second position.

Following Mankar, Bharatbhushan Barate of the BJP won by a margin of 25,027 votes from ward number 32(b). Barate secured 34,198 votes, defeating Kiran Bartakke of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who received 9,171 votes. Again, all the BJP candidates from ward 32 (Warje – Popular Nagar) achieved success in the elections.

After Mankar, BJP’s Bharatbhushan Barate won the elections by a margin of 25,027 from ward number 32 (b). Barate secured 34,198 votes, defeating Kiran Bartakke of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Bartake got 9,171 votes. All BJP candidates from ward 32 (Warje–Popular Nagar) also won the election.

Ratnamala Satav, also from the BJP, captured the third-largest margin in the elections. She received 41,514 votes and defeated NCP’s Vasundhara Ubale by 23,136 votes from ward number 4(b). Ubale obtained 18,378 votes, and once again, all four BJP candidates from ward 4 (Kharadi – Wagholi) triumphed.

Lowest margins

Khandu Londhe of the BJP won the election by the narrowest margin of just 55 votes from ward number 17(a). In a tightly contested race, Londhe garnered 14,223 votes, defeating NCP’s Ashok Kamble, a former corporator, who received 14,168 votes. Three BJP candidates and one from the NCP won elections in ward number 17 (Ramtekdi – Malwadi – Vaiduwadi).

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Additionally, BJP’s Vivek Yadav bested Avinash Bagwe of the Congress party from ward number 22(d) by a slim margin of 62 votes. Yadav received 12,423 votes, while Bagwe obtained 12,361 votes. Avinash Bagwe, a former corporator, is the son of Ramesh Bagwe, a former MLA and minister from the Congress party. In this ward (Kasewadi – Dias Plot), three candidates from the BJP and one from the Congress party were elected.

In ward number 2(b), NCP’s Ravi Tingre won against BJP’s Sudhir Waghmode by a mere 138 votes. Tingre received 15,321 votes, while Waghmode garnered 15,183 votes. In this ward (Phule Nagar – Nagpur Chawl), all four winning candidates were from the NCP.

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