The victory in Baramati marks a significant test of leadership after Ajit Pawar’s death, with rival panels led by Purushottam Jagtap and Yugendra Pawar failing to secure a single seat.
Pune, October 2026 : Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar has scored a significant political victory in the cooperative sector, with the panel backed by her faction winning all 21 seats in the election to the Someshwar Cooperative Sugar Factory in Baramati. The result represents a major setback for the rival panel led by incumbent chairman Purushottam Jagtap and the panel supported by the Sharad Pawar faction.
The sweeping victory is being viewed as an important test of Sunetra Pawar’s leadership following the death of her husband, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar. It has reinforced the influence of the faction associated with his political legacy in Baramati, a region where the Pawar family has long exercised considerable political and organisational influence.
The election was closely watched because it involved more than control of a prominent cooperative institution. It became a contest over political loyalty, grassroots mobilisation and the ability of competing factions to retain their support base following Ajit Pawar’s death.
The panel backed by Sunetra Pawar, with her son Jay Pawar playing an active role in the campaign, secured a clean sweep of all 21 positions on the factory’s governing body. Neither the panel led by Jagtap nor the one led by Yugendra Pawar, backed by the Sharad Pawar faction, managed to win a seat.
According to election reports, voter turnout stood at 84.25 per cent, reflecting strong participation in the high-stakes contest. As many as 83 candidates contested the 21 positions.
Jagtap’s challenge falls short
The election assumed added significance after Jagtap, the incumbent chairman and a longtime associate of Ajit Pawar, decided to field a separate panel instead of supporting the faction-backed candidates. His experience in the cooperative sector and tenure at the helm of the sugar factory were seen as potential advantages.
However, his decision to contest independently created a direct challenge to the leadership seeking to preserve Ajit Pawar’s influence over the institution. The results suggest that the rival panel failed to secure sufficient support among the factory’s electorate to displace the established network.
One of the most closely watched contests was in the Vanewadi constituency, where Vikram Bhosale, the candidate backed by the ruling faction, defeated Jagtap by a margin of 6,490 votes. Bhosale received 13,854 votes, against Jagtap’s 7,364.
The result underlined the scale of the defeat suffered by Jagtap’s panel and reinforced the electoral strength of the group supported by Sunetra Pawar and her family.
The contest also carried broader political significance because the BJP was reportedly supporting the rebel faction. Despite this backing, Jagtap’s panel failed to prevent a complete sweep by the Sunetra Pawar-backed group.
Pawar family factions in direct contest
The election also brought competing political factions of the Pawar family into a direct contest. Yugendra Pawar led the panel supported by the NCP faction headed by Sharad Pawar, while Sunetra Pawar’s panel sought to retain the cooperative institution under the leadership associated with Ajit Pawar’s political legacy.
The defeat of both rival panels gave Sunetra Pawar’s faction a decisive victory in the cooperative arena. It also highlighted the challenges confronting groups seeking to establish an independent political foothold in Baramati, where the Pawar family has maintained a strong organisational presence for decades.
The Someshwar Cooperative Sugar Factory occupies an important place in the region’s rural economy and political landscape. Cooperative institutions, particularly sugar factories, have traditionally served as significant centres of economic activity, local leadership and political mobilisation in western Maharashtra.
Ajit Pawar had maintained a strong influence over the institution since 1992, making the election a closely followed indicator of whether his network would remain influential after his death.
Sunetra and Jay Pawar lead campaign
Sunetra Pawar took an active role in the campaign, while Jay Pawar helped mobilise voters across the factory’s operational area. The campaign sought to retain the support base associated with Ajit Pawar and reassure members about continuity and development.
The result is being interpreted as an endorsement of the leadership seeking to carry forward Ajit Pawar’s political legacy in Baramati. It also strengthens Sunetra Pawar’s position in the cooperative sector at a time when questions remain about the future leadership and political direction of the party’s competing factions.
For Jagtap, the defeat marks a setback despite his experience as chairman and standing in the cooperative sector. Yugendra Pawar’s panel also failed to translate the backing of the Sharad Pawar faction into electoral success.
The outcome is expected to influence political calculations across Baramati and the surrounding cooperative network in the coming months. While the election was confined to the management of a sugar factory, its result has wider implications for the balance of influence among rival groups in the region.
For Sunetra Pawar, the unanimous sweep of all 21 seats marks a significant milestone in her political journey after her husband’s death, strengthening her faction’s position in one of Maharashtra’s most closely watched cooperative strongholds.
