NCP confident Sunetra Pawar will Baramati bypoll by over 2 lakh votes, surpassing Ajit Pawar’s record

Sunetra Pawar’s win is a foregone conclusion.

”There are 22 independent candidates in the fray. Hardly anyone was seen campaigning. We believe they will collectively get no more than 5,000-10,000 votes. And there Sunetra Vahani is all set for a record victory,” said a close associate of Pawar.

A huge turnout was expected during last month’s voting as a tribute to Ajit Pawar, who died in an air crash in January, necessitating the bypoll. The NCP was expecting above 70 per cent voting. However, Baramati registered only a 58.17 percent turnout. In all, 2.24 lakh voters exercised their franchise. The low turnout was attributed to the extreme heat conditions prevalent throughout Maharashtra in April.

Sunetra Pawar was the only candidate from a major political party contesting the Baramati Assembly bypoll. All others, including Karuna Munde, estranged wife of NCP leader Dhananjay Munde, were contesting as independents. The independent candidates hardly made any impact; most of them not seen campaigning, said an NCP leader in Baramati.

For her part, Sunetra Pawar also did not campaign extensively. She just met people in Baramati city during her regular morning walks. She was present only during the concluding-day rally in the city.

However, her younger son, Jay Pawar, was at the forefront during the campaign period. Even her elder son, Parth Pawar, was missing from the campaign. An NCP leader said Parth was busy with his Rajya Sabha work.

Jay Pawar criss-crossed the length and breadth of the Baramati constituency. NCP sources said he toured more than 100 villages and interacted with villagers.

Besides Jay Pawar, at least 10-12 members of the Pawar family campaigned for Sunetra Pawar. This included two of Ajit Pawar’s nephews. One was Rohit Pawar, an MLA of the Opposition NCP (SP), and the other was Yugendra Pawar. Rohit’s parents and Yugendra’s parents also campaigned for Sunetra Pawar.

Supriya Sule’s campaign for her sister-in-law

Baramati MP Supriya Sule, also from the NCP (SP), was keen to participate in the campaigning. But she had apparently received no call from Sunetra Pawar, sources said. However, Sule attended the election rally on the concluding day of the campaign and appealed to voters to elect her ‘vahani’ (sister-in-law) by a big margin of votes.

The Pawar family has never lost an election in Baramati, be it to the Assembly or Lok Sabha. Sharad Pawar first won the Baramati Assembly seat in 1967. He has never lost a poll in the constituency.

Ajit Pawar’s elections since 1991

Ajit Pawar then took over from him when he contested the Baramati Assembly bypoll in 1991. Contesting on a Congress ticket, Ajit Pawar won the bypoll by a margin of 86,915 votes. He had secured 96,032 votes, and his main opponent BJP candidate K H Khanderao.

In 1995, Ajit Pawar won by a huge margin of 77, 335 votes, defeating his nearest rival, an independent candidate. This was again on a Congress ticket.

In 1999, after the NCP was formed, Ajit Pawar defeated an independent candidate by a margin of 50,336 votes.

In 2004, Ajit Pawar won by a margin of 66,157 votes, defeating his nearest Shiv Sena rival. In 2009, he won by a margin of 1,02,927 votes. In 2014, he won by a margin of 89,000 votes by defeating his BJP rival. In 2019, he created a record in the State by securing a victory by a margin of 1,65,265 votes. In all, he secured 1,95,641 votes. His rival Gopichand Padalkar of the BJP managed to poll 30,376 votes.

And in 2024, his last election, Ajit Pawar defeated his nephew Yugendra Pawar of the NCP (SP) by a margin of 1,008,99 votes.