NEW DELHI: Maharashtra deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Ajit Pawar on Saturday clinched a decisive victory from his traditional Baramati assembly constituency, defeating his nephew Yugendra Pawar of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction by a margin of over 1 lakh votes.
While Sharad Pawar was not directly in the fray, the contest was widely viewed as a battle for supremacy between the two factions of the NCP.
Assembly Election Results
This victory not only marked Ajit Pawar’s eighth consecutive term but also symbolized a significant shift in the political dynamics within the Pawar family, with Ajit delivering the first-ever defeat in this family bastion.
Ajit, 65, who parted ways with his uncle Sharad Pawar last year, secured 1,81,132 votes compared to Yugendra’s 80,233 votes, defeating the 83-year-old veteran leader’s handpicked candidate by 1,00,899 votes.
The Baramati assembly election was a high-stakes contest, coming just five months after Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) triumphed in the Lok Sabha elections in the same constituency. Supriya Sule, Sharad Pawar’s daughter, had then defeated Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra by a margin of 1.5 lakh votes.
Both factions left no stone unturned during the campaign. Sharad Pawar and his family, including his wife Pratibha and Sule’s daughter Revati, campaigned extensively for Yugendra. On the other hand, Ajit Pawar, emphasising his development record, brought his mother on stage during his concluding rally, cautioning voters against falling for an “emotional pitch” by the senior Pawar.
Ajit Pawar’s win cements his claim as the political heir to his uncle, who founded the NCP in 1999. The split in 2023 saw Ajit aligning with the BJP-Shiv Sena government and securing the NCP name and symbol from the Election Commission, forcing Sharad Pawar’s faction to rebrand itself as NCP (SP) with a new symbol, “Man Blowing Turha.”
Following his victory, Ajit Pawar expressed gratitude to voters and vowed to focus on development. “Our victory today makes our shoulders heavy with the huge responsibilities the people of Maharashtra have bestowed upon us for the next five years. We shall not spend a single moment speaking against anyone, only for the development of Maharashtra and the welfare of its people,” he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).