Pune: NCP's Ajit Pawar is the only candidate in the history of assembly elections in Pune district since 1951 to win a seat by more than one lakh votes as per District Information Office data. This time, the deputy chief minister who has been pitted against his nephew Yugendra Pawar in Baramati, expressed confidence of winning by a similar margin. The feat was not achieved even by his uncle Sharad Pawar.
The NCP (SCP) chief's best win was in 1990 from Baramati by a margin of 88,000 votes. Among candidates who won by 50,000 and more votes, Pune district has 11 candidates bagging the feat, with Ajit Pawar recording it on five occasions. Senior political consultant Seema Rao said, "While there are incidences of high margin voting, the BJP's Anna Joshi won by just 111 votes in one election.
However, Ajit Pawar's records were at a time when the entire constituency, party workers, party leaders, and the family were with him. Now, it is going to be a litmus test, as we all wait for the results." Ajit Pawar's feat of winning by a record 1.
65 lakh votes was recorded not too long ago. In the 2019 assembly election, he bagged 1.95 lakh votes while his opponent, the BJP's Gopichand Padalkar, garnered only 30,000 votes.
From 1951 to 2019, 11 legislators in the district won by more than 50,000 votes, including six in the 2014 general elections, with four from the BJP benefiting from the Modi wave. Of these 11, four are from the NCP (undivided), two from the Congress, and five from the BJP..