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Journalism of Courage
In Junnar Assembly seat in rural Pune, independent candidate Sharad Sonavane, who had won the seat on a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ticket in 2014 and had rebelled from Shiv Sena after being denied a ticket, stunned the sitting MLA Atul Benke of NCP and NCP (SP)’s Satyasheel Sherkar. Workers believe Sonavane’s own base as a Shiv Sainik worked in his favour.
The fear stemming from repeated cases of human-leopard conflict in Junnar remained the key issue during the Assembly election along with the challenge of tourism development as the main avenue of employment generation.
Industrial growth in Junnar has its limitations because of sensitive installations like Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), one of the largest radio telescope arrays in the world for low frequencies.
The northernmost constituency in Pune, which is predominantly rural and agrarian in its demographics, Junnar was won by Atul Benke of undivided NCP in 2019, who defeated Sonavane, who fought the seat from the then undivided Shiv Sena.
In the Assembly election before that in 2014, Sonavane had fought the election on a MNS ticket and was the only MNS legislator in the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly.
After the victory was announced, Sonavane said: “A large number of grassroot workers worked for me during this election. I want to tell them that they should keep their feet connected to the ground as they celebrate this. We all have a lot of work ahead for our Junnar constituency and I am going to need them more. This victory should make us humble.”
He further said: “My future plan for Junnar is to work on its immense potential for tourism. We have in mind a very elaborate blueprint of the same that we will seek an approval for. Human-leopard conflicts remains a critical challenge. We will also be working on setting up a leopard-centric forest safari.”
Originally a loyal Shiv Sainik from Junnar, Sonavane (52) has over 25 years of experience in politics.
After a stint with the MNS, Sonavane returned to Shiv Sena in 2019.
The NCP, on the other hand, has always had a significant voter base in Junnar, which falls under the Shirur Lok Sabha constituency.
With the split in the NCP, the Assembly election was expected to witness a battle between the two NCPs led by Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar.
While the Ajit Pawar-led NCP had Benke, the NCP (SP) had chosen Satyasheel Sherkar who shifted from the Congress days before filing nomination.
Sonavane was hopeful of getting the candidature from Mahayuti and decided to rebel after the ticket went to NCP’s Benke.
The fight for Junnar was expected to be between the two NCPs, but on Saturday when the votes were counted, Sonavane stunned everyone with a victory.
He bagged 73,355 votes and won with a margin of 6,664 over Sherkar, who got 66,691 votes.
Sitting MLA Benke remained in third position with 48,100.
“We believe that the strong supporter base of Sonavane, which he has worked hard for over the last 25 years, was the key here. He is a Shiv Sainik to the core. Though Mahayuti had given candidature of Benke and MVA to Sherkar, the core voter for Shiv Sena from both the sides voted for Sonavane. He has remained accessible even after his victory in 2014 and defeat in 2019,” said a local political worker.
“The rivals of Sonavane tried to play dirty, ran a smear campaign, pitted two candidates with the same name, denied him permissions for rallies and more. It seems that it generated sympathy among some and also made his loyal supporters determined to see him win,” said another local worker.
When contacted, NCP’s Benke said: “It was a really unexpected result for us. We will analyse the result.”
