Mumbai: Debutant contestant Parth Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s grand-nephew, was trailing incumbent Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne by 2.2 lakh votes as of 4.30 pm Thursday, signifying a major blow to the family’s clout.
The seat Pawar is contesting, Maval, was believed to be one of the safest seats for the NCP in Maharashtra, given that it was a member of the party’s first family in the fray.
The party focused all its strength on the campaign for Parth, former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s son. The Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), which has a significant sway over the constituency, also backed Parth’s candidature, boosting the NCP’s hopes further.
No member of the Pawar family has ever lost a direct election.
NCP chief Pawar, who had earlier decided to contest this year’s Lok Sabha election from Solapur district’s Madha constituency, backed out to make way for Parth to contest from Maval. At the time, the former Union minister had said that there should not be too many members of the same family in the fray.
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Parth’s possible loss a first for any Pawar family member
The 2019 Lok Sabha poll marked Parth’s debut in electoral politics.
Sharad Pawar had contested and won his first election in 1967. His nephew, Ajit Pawar, too, was victorious in his electoral debut in 1991. In 2009, Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, who had earlier been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, repeated history, contesting and winning her first direct election from Baramati, the NCP chief’s home turf.
None of the three Pawar leaders has lost a single election ever since.
If Parth loses, he will be the first member of the Pawar family to lose an electoral battle. During the campaign, he faced criticism for not being a good orator like his other family members, and being unable to speak Marathi as fluently as what is expected from a politician wanting to represent a significantly-rural constituency.
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Unlike Baramati, Maval not an easy constituency
Carved out as an individual parliamentary constituency in 2008, Maval is one of four Lok Sabha seats in the Pune district, along with Baramati, Pune City and Shirur, and has been with the Shiv Sena since 2009.
In 2014, five of the six assembly segments that comprise the constituency went to either the BJP or the Shiv Sena. The sixth, Karjat, was wrested by the NCP — the party has held the segment for two consecutive terms, before which the seat was with the BJP for three.
The BJP has also won civic elections in some cities under the Maval constituency since 2014, sweeping the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation, which the NCP had held for 10 years.
In 2014, the NCP and the PWP, contesting separately, won 5.37 lakh votes, which could have defeated Sena’s Barne, who got 5.12 lakh.
Also read: BJP-Shiv Sena alliance off to a heady start in Maharashtra as early trends pour in
This report reflects the updated vote count.
Given the Aandhi, a great relief that Supriyatai will win from Baramati …