Ten years on, it is his daughter Supriya Sule who is set to gain from Pawar’s special equation with Baramati, where his larger-than-life presence still looms large.

To gauge the strength of the Pawar charisma, it must be remembered Patil was an opponent who he had trounced in the1984 elections before helping him win. Then, later in 1996, he once again defeated Patil by over two lakh votes as if to drive home the point as to who called the shots in Baramati.

“Each time he contested, Pawar has won by massive margins, by over two lakh,” said MLA Vilas Lande, who has been one of Pawar’s pointsmen for years.

At the receiving end and losing out to Pawar twice was the BJP’s Dr Pratibha Lokhande, who lost her deposit in 1991. “Against Pawar, once I lost my deposit and next time managed to do well. Pawar defeated Patil, then ensured his opponent’s victory, then trounced him again. Pawar can win on his own and can ensure anybody’s victory,” said Lokhande.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Pawar, when he won by a margin of 4.5 lakh votes, was second only to Ramvilas Paswan in terms of the victory margin.

Lokhande cites two factors for Pawar’s iron grip over Baramati: his rapport with workers at the grassroots as well as voters, and rampant booth-capturing by his party workers, especially in rural areas. “I had lodged complaints with election officers about booth-capturing,” she said.

Booth-capturing was not so rampant in the urban spread of Baramati, she said. “That is why Pawar was ahead of me by only around 4,000 votes in the Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial belt,” Lokhande added.

Pawar has rarely needed to campaign in Baramati, the only exception being 1984. “It was only during the Rajiv Gandhi wave of 1984 that Pawar was seen walking through the length and breadth of his constituency. Otherwise, he rarely campaigned,” recalled Dattatraya Landge, an NCP leader.