Mumbai: On Sunday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) head Ajit Pawar contested his first cooperative election in nearly four decades, for the position of the chairman of a sugar factory in the Baramati taluka. His party’s preparation for the counting on Tuesday is nothing short of that for a full-fledged assembly poll.
Until now, the election to the Malegaon Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana in the Baramati taluka of Pune district had always been a routine, low-key affair, largely between the panel supported by Pawars, considered to be the first family of Baramati, and another led by Chandrarao Taware, their traditional rival in the sugar factory poll. Taware had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019.
However, this time, the poll that concluded Sunday, had metamorphosed into a high-decibel, high stakes quadrangular contest, between two panels backed by two Pawars, their traditional rival Taware and a panel of Independents.
This time, the election is not limited to the sugar factory alone: It is another test of who commands the loyalty of the population of Baramati.
“In the two elections since the NCP split, Baramati has delivered two different verdicts—one in favour of Sharad Pawar and another in favour of Ajit Pawar. As such, the sugar factory election is important because it would be the third, a tie-breaker test, and one that comes close on the heels of the upcoming local body polls,” Nitin Birmal, associate professor at Pune’s Dr. Ambedkar Art & Commerce College, told ThePrint.
The NCP split in July 2023 when Ajit Pawar decided to walk out of the Sharad Pawar-led party with a majority of MLAs and join hands with the Mahayuti, comprising the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. In May 2024, Baramati voted for the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) electing Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule to the Lok Sabha. Sule was pitted against Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar, who the party later accommodated in the Rajya Sabha.
In the last year’s Maharashtra polls, however, Baramati overwhelmingly voted for the incumbent MLA, Ajit Pawar.
The fiercely-contested battle has also hit pause on any talks of reconciliation between the Pawar uncle and nephew.
During the campaign, members of the Sharad Pawar and Taware panel had also levelled allegations about the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank, controlled by loyalists of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, was open late into the night just ahead of the Malegaon sugar factory polls, and voter lists were found.
NCP founder Pawar said the bank was found open during the Lok Sabha election too, and demanded a probe.
Refuting the allegations, Deputy CM Pawar said, “The bank doesn’t run as per my instructions. I resigned as director of the bank two years ago. But, if anyone feels there is anything amiss, there should be an inquiry.”
Also Read: With talks of leadership change & mega membership drives, both NCPs kick off local polls campaign
What’s at stake
The Malegaon sugar factory has over 19,000 members spread across 37 villages of the Baramati taluka. The members voted to elect 21 office bearers to run the sugar mill for the next five years. Voters are divided in two categories: A and B. The first category comprises the cane cultivators, while the second comprises the representatives of cooperative bodies.
With elections to pending Zilla Parishad and panchayat samiti elections likely to be held this year, the sugar factory poll is being seen as a litmus test.
“Controlling a sugar factory always brings with it a lot of political might and economic power. Plus, with its members spread across 37 villages in Baramati, having control over the institution will help mobilise people for the local body election,” political commentator Pratap Asbe told ThePrint.
One election always has some impact on the next one, Asbe said. “If Ajit Pawar wins, it will send a message that the people of Baramati are firmly with him, while if Sharad Pawar’s panel wins, it will send a message that irrespective of what happened in the assembly election, there is ground support in favour of the NCP founder.”
The Baliraja Sahakar Bachao panel, supported by Sharad Pawar is taking on the Ajit Pawar-led Nilkantheshwar panel. Sharad Pawar’s grand nephew Yugendra has been actively leading the campaign.
Thirty-two-year-old Yugendra Pawar, son of Ajit Pawar’s sibling Shrinivas Pawar, had taken on his uncle in the assembly poll last year, and lost with a heavy margin.
The Malegaon sugar factory was set up in 1955 and is one of the three major cooperative sugar factories in Baramati. The other two are the Shree Chhatrapati Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana, Bhavaninagar, and Shree Someshwar Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana.
The Bhavaninagar sugar factory had its election in May, in which the panel supported by Ajit Pawar won. The last election to the Someshwar sugar factory was in 2021, before the NCP split. The panel backed by the undivided NCP won the election.
While a number of cooperative sugar factories across Maharashtra are struggling financially, the Malegaon sugar factory is said to be doing well. The last time Ajit Pawar contested a cooperative election was in the 1980s when he won the post of the chairman of the Bhavaninagar sugar factory.
BJP’s Taware queers the pitch
The reason why Ajit Pawar felt compelled to contest the election himself instead of simply backing his panel and campaigning vigorously for it, like he has been doing so far, is the fear of votes being split with Taware and Sharad Pawar’s panels both being serious competitors. The rationale was that a split in votes between the two Pawar camps could benefit Taware.
However, when reporters in Baramati asked Ajit Pawar on why he is personally contesting the election, the Deputy CM said, “We are the people’s representative. We like to work. We like to run institutions effectively. It is an important factory in my Baramati taluka. Its area includes the 37 villages in Baramati taluka.”
Taware was a contemporary of Sharad Pawar, and has even worked on the veteran politician’s campaigns during his early days in politics. But, while Sharad Pawar grew as a leader in the state and the Centre, Taware remained limited to Baramati, tightening his hold over the cooperative sector, intermittently winning cooperative sugar mill elections.
In 2015, Taware’s panel won the Malegaon sugar factory election, dislodging the NCP. Five years on, the undivided NCP once again won control of the sugar factory.
With Taware now in its ranks, the BJP, which is an ally of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in the Mahayuti, has indirectly entered the electoral contest, especially as it did not ask Taware to sit the election out. The BJP, however, stayed out of the poll process and the campaign frenzy.
“By not asking Taware to withdraw, the BJP wanted to send a message to Ajit Pawar that everything is not so clear and simple for him, and if tomorrow, the BJP decides to play spoilsport, it can,” political commentator Hemant Desai said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Shinde & Thackeray revive Shiv Sena’s classic ‘Marathi manus, sons of soil’ pitch ahead of BMC polls
