Pune: Wednesday was supposed to be yet another hectic day for deputy chief minister and NCP president Ajit Pawar, as he was scheduled to address four campaign rallies for the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections after landing at Baramati airstrip around 9am. The first rally was scheduled at 10am in Nirwagaj, while the day’s last was planned in Supa village around 5.30pm. On Jan 24, Ajit Pawar kicked off his party’s campaign for the Feb 5 polls. Addressing supporters at the famous Maruti temple at Kanheri in Baramati, he elaborated on the development works carried out in the area. He was keen on winning maximum seats in all the panchanayat samitis in his home district.The next day, the NCP chief addressed a gathering of directors and office bearers of various cooperative societies in Baramati. He was back in Mumbai on Tuesday for administrative meetings, but he planned to spend the next few days again in Baramati and in the district’s rural areas for campaigning.An NCP worker from the city unit in Pune said Ajitdada toured almost all districts in the last three months for the municipal council and corporation elections, and he had a big campaign plan for the zilla parishad polls. “During the corporation elections, Ajitdada not only concentrated on western Maharashtra, which is the NCP stronghold, but he also held rallies in Nagpur, Amravati, Chandrapur and Akola, where the party fought independently. He used to travel by plane, helicopter and also by road. Wednesday was an unfortunate day. He met with a fatal accident in his hometown Baramati a few seconds before his plane was supposed to land,” the worker said.Another party worker said Ajitdada’s election campaign day used to begin very early. “In Pune, he visited homes of some party workers around 7am. Even on Wednesday, he left Mumbai around 7am to ensure that he would spend more time in Baramati meeting people and party workers.”Vishwas Devkate, former Pune zilla parishad president and a close aide of Ajit Pawar, said immediately after the civic poll results, the NCP chief held a series of meetings with party workers and senior leaders, laying out a roadmap for the upcoming district-level elections. “He personally oversaw the selection of candidates, holding consultations across tehsils and distributing party tickets for the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti polls,” Devkate said.Another former Pune zilla parishad president, Nirmala Pansare, said she accepted without resentment Ajit Pawar’s decision not to field her as a candidate. “He denied me a ticket this time, but I was not disappointed. Whatever I received in earlier elections was beyond my expectations,” Pansare, a long-time loyalist of Ajit Pawar, said.For the polls to the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic bodies, when NCP fought against its Mahayuti partner BJP, Ajit Pawar single-handedly led the campaign. He addressed rallies in Katraj, Hadapsar, Balewadi and Wadgaonsheri. Ajit Pawar’s aggressive campaign fetched fairly good results in the municipal council polls, especially in Baramati where NCP won 35 out of the 41 seats. Besides, the party managed to bag the president’s post in 10 out of the 17 local bodies.
