Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister and NCP president Ajit Pawar on Saturday won from his traditional Baramati assembly constituency by defeating his nephew and NCP (SP) candidate Yugendra Pawar by more than one lakh votes.
The 65-year-old politician, thus, settled the score with his uncle Sharad Pawar (83), inflicting on him the first-ever defeat in this family bastion.
Though Sharad Pawar himself was not in the fray, the high-stakes contest was being seen as a battle between him and Ajit.
Ajit Pawar, who parted ways with his uncle last year and was seeking an eighth term from this seat in Pune district, polled 1,81,132 votes while Yugendra Pawar polled 80,233 votes.
He, thus, defeated his younger brother Shriniwas’ son by 1,00,899 votes.
Five months ago, Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) had triumphed in Baramati in the Lok Sabha elections, with incumbent MP and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule defeating Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra by a margin of 1.5 lakh votes.
Both the NCP factions did not leave a single stone unturned during the assembly campaign, and even Sharad Pawar’s wife Pratibha Pawar and Sule’s daughter Revati were seen campaigning for Yugendra, while Ajit Pawar brought his mother on stage during his concluding rally in Baramati.
While Sharad Pawar told the people of Baramati that they needed a new leadership, alluding to Yugendra Pawar whom he described as a highly-educated candidate, Ajit cautioned people not to fall prey to the “emotional pitch” by the senior Pawar.
The deputy chief minister also highlighted his development record in the area, and vowed to make Baramati “the number one tehsil in the country”.
After Saturday’s results, Ajit Pawar, who along with several other NCP legislators sided with the BJP-Shiv Sena government in 2023, could claim to be the real political heir of his estranged uncle who founded the NCP in 1999.
Sunetra Pawar, now a Rajya Sabha member, thanked the people of Baramati for reposing their faith once again in `Dada’ (elder brother in Marathi, as Ajit is fondly called).
Sharad Pawar, 83, started his political career in Baramati where he contested his first assembly election in 1967, and so far, he or a candidate backed by him had never tasted defeat in the constituency.
Following the split in the NCP in 2023, Ajit Pawar managed to get the party name and symbol from the Election Commission of India, forcing the Sharad Pawar faction to rename itself as NCP(SP) with a new symbol — ‘Man Blowing Turha’.
With his party winning 37 seats (out of the 59 it contested) so far and leading on four seats, Ajit in a post on X on Saturday evening said, “Our victory today makes our shoulders heavy with the huge responsibilities the people of Maharashtra have bestowed upon us for the next 5 years. We shall spend every moment working to fulfil their aspirations. We shall not spend a single moment speaking against anyone, we will speak only and only for the development of Maharashtra and the welfare of its people.”
