'Dadacha Vada' Fails In Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad As BJP Retains Both Municipal Corporations

Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar put in an all-out effort to wrest control of the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but failed to win the confidence of the voters.

Despite making a slew of promises, including free PMPML bus services and free Pune Metro rides, the NCP could not translate its campaign into electoral success, as the BJP crossed the majority mark on its own.

Ajit Pawar led an aggressive and high-voltage campaign in both cities, which had raised expectations that the NCP would pose a serious challenge to the BJP, which has been in power since 2017. However, the results did not reflect those expectations.

Ahead of the elections, Ajit Pawar’s NCP had also joined hands with Sharad Pawar’s NCP-SP in an attempt to consolidate votes against the BJP. Yet, the alliance failed to make a significant impact, and the BJP emerged as the clear winner once again.

Voter turnout

The final voter turnout for the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation elections, which took place on Thursday, was released just minutes before the counting of votes on Friday morning.

As per the turnout data, Pune registered a voter turnout of 52.42%. A total of 18,62,408 voters cast their votes, which included 9,73,503 male voters, 8,88,809 female voters, and 96 transgender voters.

Meanwhile, Pimpri-Chinchwad registered a voter turnout of 57.71%. A total of 9,89,026 voters cast their votes, which included 5,25,147 male voters, 4,63,827 female voters, and 52 transgender voters.