Narendra Modi gave Baramati a miss, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is pulling out all stops to win the constituency - known to be Sharad Pawar family’s bastion and represented by his daughter Supriya Sule.
According to senior BJP leaders, a list of 1,200 persons “with some following” in various parts of the constituency has been made. The party is now approaching all these people, who can get 100 to 1,000 votes for the BJP nominee Kanchan Kul.
“These are people mostly unhappy with the Pawar family for one reason or other. We have approached many of them and successfully convinced them to work for Kul,” said Chandrakant Patil, during an earlier interaction. Patil, a senior cabinet minister in Maharashtra, is camping in Baramati to oversee the campaign.
In focus for BJP is the Khadakwasla assembly segment, which is in Pune city and has highest voter count. Baramati has six assembly segments of which Khadakwasla, which backed the BJP even in 2014, has 4.73 lakh voters.
The BJP feels that if it can get two-third of the overall votes from Khadakwasla, it will be a serious challenge to Sule, a two-term Baramati MP, now eyeing a third term
{{/usCountry}}The BJP feels that if it can get two-third of the overall votes from Khadakwasla, it will be a serious challenge to Sule, a two-term Baramati MP, now eyeing a third term
{{/usCountry}}The party has also approached most of the 36,000 fresh voters registered this time. “Many of these are outsiders who have migrated to Pune are voters in the Baramati constituency. Some of them work in IT, which is solidly backing Narendra Modi,” said a senior party functionary working with Patil overseeing the campaign.
Earlier, Modi was expected to attend a public rally at Baramati, though the prime minister changed the venue and opted for Akluj in the neighbouring Solapur district. In Kul, BJP has fielded a novice, the spouse of Rashtriya Samajan Party MLC from Daund, Rahul Kul.
Instead of Modi, now BJP chief Amit Shah will be addressing a rally in Baramati on Friday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has already addressed one rally here.
Baramati has a total 21.12 lakh voters, of which 2.95 lakh are from Daund assembly segment, where BJP hopes to get a lead.
In Baramati assembly segment the BJP does not have much chance as the town is loyal to Pawar family. In the past when Sharad Pawar used to contest polls from Baramati, he used to campaign only on the last day.
In 2014, Sule managed to win against RSP’s Mahadev Jankar by a narrow margin of 70,000 votes, boosting BJP’s confidence.
Sensing a tough battle on the cards, the Pawars too are working hard to retain the constituency. Supriya’s cousin and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, on Wednesday, held six public meetings in Baramati constituency. During her interviews Sule too is avoiding the question about vote margin. “Be it one vote or five lakh votes, a winner is winner,” said Sule in recent conversation.
Baramati LS seat has six assembly segments:
Daund, Indapur, Baramati, Purandar, Bhor and Khadakwasala.
Total voters: 21,12,862
Assembly segment-wise breakup of voters:
Daund: 2,95,656
Indapur: 3,02,264
Baramati: 3,39,338
Purandar: 3,47,853
Bhor: 3,54,596
Khadakwasala: 4,73,155