Pawars win Baramati, lose Maval

Mumbai: Parth Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew, faced electoral defeat in Maval constituency, which is the first electoral defeat for the Pawar family. However, another family member Supriya Sule managed to retain her hold over the Baramati seat gaining a better margin than in 2014.  

Since Parth and Ms Sule were contesting elections, Mr Pawar chose to withdraw his candidature from Madha constituency.

Parth’s father Ajit Pawar had made Maval a prestigious seat as he campaigned aggressively for Parth during the polls.  

However, Parth’s debut in electoral politics proved to be a failure as he was comprehensively defeated by sitting Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne by a margin of over 2.15 lakh votes.

In Baramati, Ms Sule thwarted Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) elaborate claims of wresting the Pawar family’s bastion from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). She was elected from Baramati for the third consecutive time as she defeated BJP’s Kanchan Kul with a margin of over 1.55 lakh votes.  

Ms Sule had won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls beating Mahadev Jankar of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) by 69,000 votes, down from her 3.36 lakh victory margin in 2009. Mr Jankar had contested the polls on his party symbol five years back.  

However, the BJP leaders had expressed confidence that Ms Sule will be defeated this time as Ms Kul was contesting on a lotus symbol. But all their efforts proved in vain as the ationalist Congress Party continued its dominance over the Baramati seat.  

Parth’s defeat in Maval has proved a major embarrassment for the Pawar family, which has dominated the state politics for nearly five decades.

Before Ms Sule, Sharad Pawar had represented the Baramati seat five times. During his political career of 50 years, Mr Pawar had contested 14 to 15 elections and never faced a defeat. Even Ms Sule and Ajit Pawar too have never lost an election so far.  

Reacting on the results, the ationalist Congress Party chief said, “The Maval seat was not winnable for the Nationalist Congress Party. Hence, we had decided to field a new candidate there. Our party would introspect the result and toil to better its prospects in the Maharashtra Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.”

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