A bruised Kalmadi romps home, attacks Ajit Pawar

 After a gruelling campaign marked by acrimony and intra-party dissidence, Congress nominee Suresh Kalmadi managed to retain his seat from Pune with a modest margin of over 25,000 votes.        

Kalmadi's election campaign had generated political heat as despite alliance with Congress, the NCP workers led by district guardian minister Ajit Pawar, a known detractor of the high profile sitting MP, did not actively canvassed for him.

Although Ajit's uncle and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar held election rallies in support of Kalmadi, non-participation of the NCP workers in Kalmadi's campaign remained a topic of animated discussion between the campaign managers of both the parties.        
The Kalmadi camp was jittery as the civic body is under the NCP rule as a result of the controversial 'Pune Pattern' worked out by Ajit Pawar who aligned with Shiv Sena-BJP to keep Kalmadi led Congress faction out of power in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).        

Another factor that worried Kalmadi was the intra-party fissures as his opponents within Congress carried a sustained campaign  with the party high command urging it not to renominate him this time.

Ironically, in addition to a couple of aspiring MLAs, even Maharashtra Congress spokesman Anant Gadgil too openly opposed Kalmadi's candidature saying he could not be listed as a " loyalist" since he had left the party once.        

Kalmadi was locked in a fight against BJP's Anil Shirole, was apparently aided by the candidature of Ranjit Shirole of MNS who polled a sizeable chunk of votes numbering over 75,000.        

In his post-result reaction Kalmadi said sarcastically " I am lucky that Ajit Pawar did not find time to campaign for me. Otherwise I would have been defeated like the NCP candidates in Shirur and Maval in Pune district where he had gone for canvassing".        

Kalmadi also demanded Ajit Pawar's resignation saying as the guardian minister, he failed to ensure victories of NCP-Congress alliance candidates in Pune district.        

The NCP suffered  humiliating defeats in Shirur and Maval where Shiv Sena candidates emerged victorious. Though Pune is considered its stronghold, the party could win only Baramati seat contested by Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar. The Pune city seat was left to Congress as part of seat adjustment between the alliance partners.