In 1st major rural poll post NCP split, Ajit Pawar faction sweeps Baramati, Sharad Pawar sits it out

As counting for 2,359 gram panchayats was still underway, leaders of the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP claimed to have won 30 of 32 gram panchayats in Baramati — the Pawar stronghold. 

Mumbai:  In the first major rural election after the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) split, the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the party swept the elections to gram panchayats in the Pawar family turf of Baramati, while the Sharad Pawar-led faction did not contest at all.

Elections for Maharashtra’s 2,359 gram panchayats and 130 vacant sarpanch posts were held Sunday. Gram panchayat elections in Maharashtra are not fought on party symbols, but the contestants on the ground are often aligned with parties.

But even while counting was still underway in several places, local leaders of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP claimed the party had won at least 30 of the 32 gram panchayats in the Baramati taluka, which falls in the Pune district. 

This is the first major mandate from Baramati since the split in the NCP, when a majority of the party’s MLAs followed Ajit Pawar to rebel against his uncle, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, in July. The rebel faction joined Maharashtra’s ruling alliance — comprising the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party — and Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy CM.

Meanwhile, the BJP which has been unsuccessfully struggling to breach the Pawar bastion of Baramati for a decade now, also opened its account in the region, installing its sarpanch in the taluka for the first time, party leaders said. 

The BJP claims to be at the top of the charts with victories in more than 1,000 gram panchayats, followed by the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, giving the three ruling parties a clear edge over the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). 

The MVA comprises the Congress, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). 

The Congress has, however, disputed the claims, with Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole claiming Monday that the MVA parties had won more seats than the ruling parties.

Sambhaji Holkar, head of the Baramati taluka for the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, told ThePrint: “In most of the gram panchayats, we were our own opponents, with two panels of our party fighting each other. Baramati does as Ajit dada (Ajit Pawar) says and this is what will happen in the Lok Sabha election as well”.

S.N. Jagtap, president of the Baramati taluka for the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, said his party did not contest the elections at all. He, however, did not specify the reasons.