The recently held Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections saw some moments of high drama as some candidates managed to overcome the narrowest of margins, while others achieved comfortable victories. Raghavendra alias Bapu Deepak Mankar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieved a remarkable victory by securing the highest margin of votes.
Mankar won in ward number 25 (b), defeating Sameer Gaikwad of Shivsena (UBT) by a staggering margin of 26,497 votes. He received 31,981 votes, while Gaikwad got only 5,484 votes. Notably, all four BJP candidates from ward 25 (Shaniwar Peth-Mahatma Phule Mandai) also emerged victorious.
Bapu Mankar, who won from ward number 25(b), defeating Sameer Gaikwad of Shivsena (UBT) by a staggering margin of 26,497 votes.
In the PMC elections held on January 15, the BJP won 119 seats out of 165, while the Ajit Pawar-led NCP was relegated to the second position.
After Mankar, BJP’s Bharatbhushan Barate won by a margin of 25,027 votes from ward number 32(b). Barate polled 34,198 votes, defeating Kiran Bartakke of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who received 9,171 votes. Once again, all the BJP candidates from ward 32 (Warje – Popular Nagar) achieved success in the elections.
After Mankar, BJP’s Bharatbhushan Barate won the election by a margin of 25,027 from ward number 32(b). Barate polled 34,198 votes, defeating Kiran Bartakke of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Bartake obtained 9,171 votes. All BJP candidates from ward 32 (Warje – Popular Nagar) also won the elections.
Ratnamala Satav, also of the BJP, secured the third-highest margin in the elections. He received 41,514 votes and defeated Vasundhara Ubale of the NCP by 23,136 votes from ward number 4 (b). Ubale got 18,378 votes and, once again, the four BJP candidates from district 4 (Kharadi – Wagholi) triumphed.
Lower margins
BJP’s Khandu Londhe won the election by the narrowest margin of just 55 votes from ward number 17 (a). In a close contest, Londhe polled 14,223 votes, defeating Ashok Kamble, a former NCP corporator, who received 14,168 votes. Three candidates from BJP and one from NCP won the elections in ward number 17 (Ramtekdi – Malwadi – Vaiduwadi).
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Also, BJP’s Vivek Yadav defeated Congress Party’s Avinash Bagwe from ward number 22(d) by a narrow margin of 62 votes. Yadav received 12,423 votes, while Bagwe received 12,361 votes. Avinash Bagwe, a former corporator, is the son of Ramesh Bagwe, a former Congress Party MLA and minister. In this district (Kasewadi – Dias Plot) three candidates from the BJP and one from the Congress Party were elected.
In ward number 2(b), NCP’s Ravi Tingre won against BJP’s Sudhir Waghmode by just 138 votes. Tingre received 15,321 votes, while Waghmode got 15,183 votes. In this constituency (Phule Nagar – Nagpur Chawl), all four winning candidates were from the NCP.