The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday swept the Pune Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections with a resounding majority.
Out of the total 73 seats, the NCP won a massive 51. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finished a distant second with 10 seats. Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena won five, Shiv Sena (UBT) clinched six, and NCP-SP bagged one seat. The Congress drew a blank.
The NCP leaders dedicated the victory to the late party chief, Ajit Pawar, who died on January 28 in a tragic plane crash in Baramati.
Maval MLA Sunil Shelke got emotional and said, "If Ajit Dada were here today, we would have done a huge celebration. It was because of Dada's work that the people stood behind the NCP candidates." "With today's election results, it has been proven that Ajit Dada's blessings are with us. In the future, too, we will work and follow Dada's footsteps," he added.
NCP Pune district president Sambhaji Holkar said, "Voters have paid tributes to Ajit Pawar by ensuring victory of NCP candidates in Pune Zilla Parishad-Panchayat Samiti polls.”
Meanwhile, the newly elected members met Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar in Baramati. There, they expressed their resolve to remain committed to the development envisioned by Ajit Pawar.
Polling was held for the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti on Saturday (February 7), and it went mostly peacefully, with some exceptional incidents of bogus voting and other disturbances reported in some parts of the district.
The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on February 5. However, they were postponed after the death of Ajit Pawar.
A total of 299 candidates were in the fray in the Zilla Parishad elections. This included 164 male and 135 female candidates. Indapur taluka (41) had the highest number of candidates. This included a significant 31 female candidates and 10 male candidates. The lowest number of candidates was in Velhe taluka (8), with no female candidates in the fray.
For the Panchayat Samiti elections, 528 candidates contested. This included 274 male and 254 female candidates. Similar to the Zilla Parishad constituencies, Indapur taluka (72) had the highest number of candidates. This included 38 male and 34 female candidates. The lowest number of candidates was in Velhe taluka (20), including 11 male and nine female candidates.
