MVA banks on Baramati, Pune with eye on state polls, Mahayuti confident of winning all 4

In Baramati, Supriya Sule is looking for her fourth consecutive victory. In Maval, Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne is hoping for a hat-trick while Sanjog Waghere is expecting a major upset.

In Pune city seat, the Congress is looking to resurrect itself after consecutive humilating defeats from its own traditional bastion while the BJP is confident of maintaining its winning streak. And in Shirur, actor Amol Kolhe, who Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has vowed to defeat, is eyeing a second consecutive victory.

Of the four Lok Sabha seats, the Baramati Lok Sabha seat has drawn most attention — not only in Maharashtra but from across the country and even beyond.
The battle for Baramati, a bastion of the family, generated lot of heat.

It involved lot of bitterness, aggressiveness and a verbal duel which was the first of it kind in its history. It was a battle which was became famous as Pawar versus Pawar.

Sharad Pawar himself has never lost from Baramati whenever he fought the elections. He proudly claims that he has won 14 elections from Baramati. His daughter Supriya Sule has maintained the winning tradition in tact.

She has won three consecutive times from Baramati. But this time, she is facing her biggest challenge as her own cousin, Ajit Pawar, went all out to defeat her. “They have put in lot of money to influence voters,” said Sule.

Though it is widely considered a prestige battle between Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, Vithal Maniyar, a long time close friend of the NCP (SP) chief, believes otherwise. “I have no doubt in mind Supriya will win hands down,” he says.

When asked if Supriya Sule loses, will it mean big loss of face for Sharad Pawar, Maniyar said, “The NCP chief has faced many ups and downs in election ring. He has fielded several candidates over the years in election ring. Some have lost, some have won. That has not affected him. In case Supriya loses, I don’t think it will affect him,” Maniyar points out.

Sule on her part too was taking the exit poll results with caution. Though at least three exit poll results favoured her, Sule sounded worried about one result which was against her. “One result has gone against me…I don’t want to comment anything until I get the final result,” she said. However, Ajit Pawar-led NCP doesn’t think Sule will make it to the Parliament again. “She failed as a Lok Sabha MP. She couldn’t get central funds and could not push Baramati’s development. It was our leader Ajit Pawar who worked tirelessly for Baramati and its people. Therefore, people have voted for Sunetra Pawar and she will be entering Parliament first time as an MP,” said NCP spokesperson Umesh Patil.

The Pune seat is also being viewed with lot of interest in Maharashtra. Both BJP and Congress are looking for a victory. BJP wants to win Pune seat desperately because it lost Kasba Peth by-election last year which gave the Congress a tonic to revive itself.

After two consecutive elections when Congress candidate were badly mauled, the party is sensing its revival with Ravindra Dhangekar who managed to infuse new energy in the Congress rank and file.

Though the exit poll has favoured BJP’s Murlidhar Mohol and party’s celebrations have already begun, Dhangekar and his team have shrugged off the predictions. “The exit polls everyone knows were managed by BJP. People of Pune will give the exact poll tomorrow. Dhangekar can’t lose by any stretch of imagination,” said Congress leader Mohan Joshi, who lead Dhangekar’s campaigning.

Shiv Sena (UBT) Sanjay Raut said Baramati Lok Sabha victory will send out the right signal for the ensuing assembly elections. “There are 60 Assembly seats in Western Maharashtra. If we win, Baramati Lok Sabha, it will create positive atmosphere for MVA ahead of the assembly elections,” he said.

The Ajit Pawar led NCP and BJP, which are part of the Mahayuti are playing down any possibility of defeat in Baramati and Pune seats.

BJP however dismisses Dhangekar and his byelection win as a one-off incident. “He won the Kasba bypoll which was a fluke. Once it happened, it cannot happened second time. Pune will be wrapped in saffron colour on Tuesday. Murlidhar Mohol will win by a big margin of votes,” said BJP leader Sandeep Khardekar.

BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhaye said,”Whatever be the exit poll results, the Mahayuti will win maximum number of seats, even going beyond 40 seats in Maharashtra. Be it Baramati or Pune, we will win everywhere with comfortable margin.”

In Maval, Shiv Sena candidate Shrirang Barne, as per the exit poll results, is set to win for third time. In case that happens, he will be the second MP from Pune to secure a hat-trick after Sule.

In Maval, the campaigning was so lacklustre for a better part that many believed that it will be a one-sided contest in favour of Barne. However, after the polling, the murmurs became shrill that some NCP workers and leaders did not work for Barne, who himself confessed it.

Picking up from here, the Sanjog Waghere camp is expecting a major upset in Maval. Waghere contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time. ”There are several factors which have gone against Barne. It will became clear on Tuesday,” said Waghere while sounding confident of his victory.

In Shirur, NCP (S-P) candidate Amol Kolhe did not let down his guard till the last day of the campaigning. On the other hand, his rival and NCP candidate Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil looked jaded in the final stages. In the earlier stages of campaigning, there was a verbal duel between the two. However, Adhalrao later backed out, saying there was no point in hitting back and wasting time. Kolhe however kept making noise which got him more eyeballs and was more talked about.

“Much before exit polls predicted his victory, we knew it is coming,” said a Kolhe associate.

Kolhe went all-out as he felt hurt by some of the remarks made by Ajt Pawar, said his close associates. “Ajit Pawar said he will defeat Kolhe. Ajit Pawar said Kolhe was busy acting rather than concentrating on his constituency as an MP. All this hurt Kolhe who spared no effort to reach out to the voters,” his associates added.