By Tejas Navale
Pune, November 25, 2024: In a resounding victory, the Mahayuti coalition has claimed dominance over Pune district, bagging 18 out of the 21 assembly seats. In the Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad suburban areas, the coalition won 10 out of 11 seats, leaving only Vadgaon Sheri for the Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA). Further, the picture in the rural areas of Pune is not different, where Mahayuti secured eight out of 10 seats, while the MVA and an independent candidate managed to capture one seat each only.
The rural constituencies proved to be a battleground where the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) emerged as the most successful party, clinching six seats. The other Mahayuti partners, the BJP and the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), each secured one seat. Among the remaining two, the Khed-Alandi seat went to Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Babaji Ramchandra Kale, who won decisively with a margin of 51,743 votes, while Junnar was taken by independent candidate Sharad Sonawane with a slender margin of 6,664 votes.
This outcome marks one of the worst performances by the MVA in the state and Pune district since its formation after the 2019 elections. The loss is particularly damaging, given that nine of the 10 rural assembly constituencies of Pune district, excluding Maval, fall under the Baramati and Shirur Lok Sabha constituencies, which the MVA had won in the recent Lok Sabha elections. This reversal signals a significant blow to the MVA’s rural ambitions in Pune.
Among the Mahayuti victories, the most notable came from Baramati, where Ajit Pawar secured a landslide victory over his nephew Yugendra Pawar by a massive margin of 1,00,899 votes, with a voter turnout of 66.13%. In neighbouring Indapur, NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) candidate Datta Bharne defeated NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) candidate Harshavardhan Patil by 19,410 votes, securing a total of 1,17,236 votes.
In Purandar, an internal ‘friendly fight’ within Mahayuti saw Shiv Sena’s Vijay Shivatare prevail over Congress candidate Sanjay Jagtap with a margin of 24,188 votes. Similarly, in Daund, BJP’s Rahul Kul defeated Ramesh Thorat of the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) by 13,889 votes. Bhor witnessed NCP’s Shankar Mandekar defeating Congress candidate Sangram Thopte by 19,638 votes.
In Maval, the MVA refrained from fielding a candidate, instead supporting independent Bapusaheb Bhegade against the NCP’s Sunil Shelke. Despite this, Shelke emerged victorious with a total of 1,08,565 votes. Ambegaon turned into a nail-biter as senior leader Dilip Walse Patil of NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) edged out Devdatta Nikam of NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) by a razor-thin margin of 1,553 votes.
Shirur delivered another emphatic win for the Ajit Pawar faction as Dnyaneshwar Katke defeated rival NCP (SP) candidate Ashok Pawar with a staggering margin of 74,550 votes.
