Lessons in Baramati, courtesy Pawar

And though half the population is drought-hit, most farmers are now reaping the benefits of the White Revolution. Every village has a milk-collecting cooperative which supplies milk to various dairies, including Dynamix Dairy, which in turn outsources it to Nestle, HLL (Cadbury) and Britannia.

When he became chief minister in 1978 for the first time, Pawar also encouraged farmers to grow hybrid cereals and gave huge subsidies to mango/ cashewnut planters. From horticulture, sugar and agro-processing to manufacturing and industries, Pawar has nurtured his constituency. There’s a reason why you will often find the bigwigs of industry attending some do or other at Baramati.

But if you talk to the people, they say Pawar’s biggest contribution to his constituency is education. ‘‘Barring medicine, every other field of education is available here,’’ says a Pawar loyalist.

According to Amol Goje, director of VIIT, Pawar wants everyone in Baramati to be well-versed in English. ‘‘Rozi-roti ka sawal hai, and Pawar knows that in an infotech-driven world, the knowledge of English is imperative.’’

Adds Gujar, now vice-president of Vidyapeeth Pratisthan, the KG-to-PG plush multi-crore campus which is the showpiece of Baramati: ‘‘Saheb was the first to start an English medium school here. Now, 50,000 students study arts, commerce, science, infotech, biotech…. They come from all over the country, but particularly from Ahmednagar, Pune, Satara, Sholapur, Kolhapur, Beed and Latur.’’ Two more English-medium schools are slated to come up in six months.

Though during every election time, there are whispers of dissatisfaction, Baramati has always voted him back — five times since 1984.

‘‘People of Baramati trust him. He’s the man with foresight,’’ says one resident. In 1999, Pawar polled 57.79 per cent of votes, compared to 23.98 per cent logged by his BJP rival Pratibha Lokhande, winning by 2.98 lakh votes.

Pawar’s nephew Rajendra Pawar, who heads Baramati Agro and is chairman of Krishi Vikas Kendra, says the four-time Chief Minister thought of novel ways to tackle unemployment. ‘‘When farmers didn’t have enough water to farm, he asked them to diversify into poultry-production. Now, we have launched farmers’ clubs in 30 villages where they get any information they want through the internet.’’

The buzz in Baramati is saheb will campaign only in the last hour of the last day of campaigning. ‘‘He doesn’t need to. We will always stand by the man who made Baramati famous.’’